LONDON: A British car safety company has called for an immediate ban on the use of smart watches by drivers.
This week saw the launch of the Apple Watch and Croydon-based company SmartWitness, which manufactures in-car CCTV and safety cameras, are concerned that driver distraction will be significantly increased by drivers using the new smart watch.
SmartWitness claims recent research has shown that using a smart watch whilst driving makes response times nearly three times longer – and is even worse than using a hand-held mobile phone.
In Britain, use of mobile phones whilst driving was banned in 2003 but there is currently no such legislation in place for smart watches.
The Apple smart watch was unveiled this week and is a wearable piece of technology that enables the user to send and receive emails and texts, and connect to your iPhone. The launch has created a huge demand for smart watches which are now likely to become much more commonplace in Britain.
SmartWitness international sales head Mark Berry Mark said: “We need to have a Driver Mode added to the smart watches, much in the same way there’s an Airplane Mode button which switches off messaging and calls during flights – and we need legislation to enforce it otherwise there could be a significant increase in serious road accidents and even fatalities caused by smart watches. ”
