You know, it’s kind of funny. Lately, I’ve been seeing stories that claim the smartphone is already dead or will be in the next decade. Meanwhile, every time I’m on the road, I see someone playing with their phone while they are cruising along. In 2015 alone, there were 3,477 fatalities and 391,000 injuries that involved distracted drivers. Surely not every single incident was related to cell phone usage, but you can imagine it probably accounts for a big chunk of it. The NHTSA even claims that approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones during daylight hours each day. That’s a staggering number, and it’s probably getting worse, but Apple just announced a new mode that will combat distracted driving automatically. Well, kind of.

It’s called “Do Not Disturb While Driving” mode and will be released as part of the iOS 11 push later this year to iPhone 5s and later models, as well as the sixth-gen iPod Touch and newer iPads. By use of the various sensors, iOS 11 will be able to determine when you’re driving and will automatically silence notifications so that the screen remains dark. It can be set up to send an auto-reply to contacts listed as favorites to say that you’ll respond when you reach your destination. Apparently, passengers will be able to click on an “I’m Not Driving” button so that they can use their device as normal, so there shouldn’t be any issues with those riding shotgun. Of course, that’s also the big flaw in the programming as well.

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Just Say You’re Not Driving

According to Apple, the new mode will use Wi-Fi triangulation to determine when you’re actually driving and when you’re not. There’s no telling how it will work when you’re in an area void of Wi-Fi signals, but one would assume it would default to GPS sensors. But, that doesn’t really matter, because this attempt to end distracted driving will probably fall victim to everyone’s choice of free will. Considering everyone is so addicted to their phones that they won’t even put them down when driving, chances are, they’ll just hit the “I’m Not Driving” button and continue to text at 80 mph as they have been the past 10 years. It’s a valiant attempt by Apple to put an end to distracted driving, but much like Nissan’s idea of putting a Faraday cage in the Juke, something tells me it won’t be very successful.

Will this new mode actually help you keep your hands off the phone and eyes on the wheel or will you be clicking the “I’m not driving” button, too? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.