Earlier this month, I talked about the dangers of distracted driving and how distractions affect you visually, manually and cognitively. A recent Consumer Reports article reported that distracted driving plays a part in 80 percent of all car crashes and is responsible for 5,500 fatalities a year.
The National Highway Traffic Administration has officially deemed the problem of using cell phones while driving an epidemic. The sad part about all of these statistics is that they can easily be avoided by doing a few simple things before taking off in your new Honda.
First and foremost, check any phone messages or make any important phone calls. Next, go ahead and select your music and adjust your a/c. If you have a GPS or in-dash navigation system, be sure to program your destination first and review the route. If you’re navigational device has the capability of speaking the directions to you, make sure you have this option enabled. I know it can get annoying, but it’s worth it.
Rushing is never a good idea, so always try to allow enough time to make it to your destination. I know this cannot always be avoided, but to your best to plan accordingly. If you car’s somewhat of a mess, you may want to tidy it up a bit, also. Place anything you may need within reach so you don’t have to spend anytime taking your eyes off the road and searching around the vehicle.
Doing all of the above mentioned while driving is considered multi-tasking and some people really take pride in their ability to do this. But it only takes a split second to have a car accident and the statistics do not lie. Distracted driving leads to crashes, injuries and deaths. So do your best Cincinnati to lessen your possible distractions before putting your Honda in drive.
Do you consider yourself an excellent driver? There aren’t many people who will willing admit that they aren’t the best driver in the world, but you’d be surprised at how many will jump at the chance to claim they are America’s best driver. Well Cincinnati Honda drivers, now you can put that claim to the test. And if you are in fact as great as you say, you could save yourself some pretty pennies at the same time.
In August, State Farm Insurance launched a telematic service called In-Drive. Telematic services are used to assist drivers in real-time. Until now, the most known telematic service was GM’s On Star. Similar to On Star, In-Drive provides roadside assistance and maintenance diagnostics with the simple push of a button. But because it’s run by State Farm Insurance, there’s also a chance of lowering your insurance rates depending on how well you drive.
The great thing about this device is that you don’t have to be a State Farm customer, though you’ll get a little more out of the service if you are. By allowing State Farm to link into your vehicle and monitor your driving habits, you can save up to ten percent on liability and medical coverage, and other services that they offer. Currently, In-Drive is offered in three packages:
In-Drive Connect
Automatically collects your driving statistics to help you analyze and improve your driving so you can save money. In-Drive Connect empowers you by providing the tools to help you to be safe and save.
In-Drive Guardian
Includes all the features of In-Drive Connect with additional diagnostic and safety features plus access to trained specialists. With In-Drive Guardian, you’re not only connected, you’re protected.
In-Drive Co-Pilot
Additional features that can supplement In-Drive Connect or In-Drive Guardian, designed to give you greater peace of mind that your loved ones are safe and secure behind the wheel. This package is especially helpful for families with drivers who are new to the road.
I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely thinking about switching my auto insurance. If you don’t have an issue with State Farm monitoring your driver habits (and you shouldn’t if you’re as good of a driver as you claim), then I’d definitely consider looking into this new technology. Here’s a short clip from State Farm about safe driving.
I was cruising down I-75 the other day and though I hate to admit it, my mind began to wander a little bit. Somehow I found myself thinking about highway signs and whether or not they actually had any meaning behind them.
When I got home, I decided to do a little research and found out some very interesting information. Did you know that U.S. highway signs have been around since the 1920′s? And in 1956, President Eisenhower developed the Interstate system. This was also when speeds, number of lanes, shoulder widths and numbering standards became uniform.
So what exactly are the standards/guidelines for numbering the highways? Well, odd numbers mean the highway runs north and south with the lowest numbers in the west. Even numbers run east to west with the lowest numbers in the south. If you take a look at a map, you’ll notice that I-5 runs north to south along the west coast and I-10 runs east to west in the south. I found a lot of other interesting information on an RV website (www.rvbasics.com) that I thought I’d also share with you.
When an interstate hits a major urban area, beltways around the city carry a three-digit number. These routes are designated with the number of the main route and an even-numbered prefix. To prevent duplication within a state, prefixes go up. For example, if I-80 runs through three cities in a state, routes around those cities would be I-280, I-480 and I-680. This system is not carried across state lines, so several cities in different states can have a beltway called I-280.
When I-95 hits metropolitan Washington, D.C., coming from the south, it becomes the famous Beltway that circles the city, signed I-495. North of the metro area, when the two circumferential highways rejoin, it becomes I-95 again.
Divided routes have been around since 1926, and designate roughly-equivalent splits of routes. For instance, U.S. Route 11 splits into U.S. Route 11E (east) and U.S. Route 11W (west) in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the routes rejoin in Bristol, Virginia. Occasionally only one of the two routes is suffixed; U.S. Route 6N in Pennsylvania does not rejoin U.S. Route 6 at its west end. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has been trying to eliminate these since 1934; its current policy is to deny approval of new ones and to eliminate existing ones.
So there you have it Cincinatti Honda owners. If you were ever wondering how nations great highway systems, now you know!
Have you ever mistakenly forgot to make your car payment? Have you ever been a few days late making a car payment? I am sure it’s happened to everyone at least once. It’s happened to me. How would you feel if one day you were driving your car around Cincinnati and all of a sudden your car started buzzing reminding you that you have not made your car payment yet? I am still thinking about it and I can’t decide if it would annoy me or if I would be thankful for the reminder.
There is a company out there called Rocky Mountain Tracking and their main goal is to make sure that car owners don’t forget to make their car payments on time. Rocky Mountain Tracking is a GPS manufacturer and they have developed one very unique device that can and will remotely activate to produce a very annoying, very loud, very frightening buzz in your car. The only way you can get the buzzing to stop is by promptly getting your account status back to normal. Would you want a GPS device keeping track of your car payments?
Car dealerships frequently install devices like the Smart Tracker to keep tabs on the location of vehicles sold to high-risk customers. The device can accurately locate the vehicle should a visit from the repo man become necessary, making the dealer’s life considerably easier. In addition, the devices protect both the owner and the dealer in the event of a theft. Head over to Rocky Mountain Tracking to see the rest of the company’s wares and hit the jump for a full press release. [Source: AutoBlog]
Well, what do you think? Would you like this device installed on your new or used Honda?
If you were being unknowingly tracked in your new or used Honda would you be upset? Turns out TomTom supposedly sold it’s data information to the police who in turn used that information to create speed traps. That is not very nice. Not nice at all. If TomTom asked you for permission to use your data what would be your answer? Yes or no? I can pretty much guarantee that a huge majority of you would say no. Check out this article from Consumer Reports following with a video from TomTom CEO Harold Goodijn and you tell me what you think their intentions were.
In the video, TomTom CEO Harold Goodijn stresses that the tracking of its devices is voluntary and that customers can choose not to allow it. He also says the data is provided anonymously, and is valuable information the company uses to improve the guidance of its devices, by identifying problem areas and routing customers around them.
TomTom says the company has provided this data to police departments and other authorities to help them identify congested areas for safety reasons and to help determine where road capacity needs to be increased. Mr. Goodijn says TomTom had been unaware Dutch police were using the data to choose locations for speed traps and that the company would prevent that type of usage in the future.
With revenue from standalone GPS devices falling as more motorists turn to their smart phones for navigation, it is not surprising that TomTom is looking for other sources of income. And traffic information that might help identify overloaded roads, danger spots, and help prevent crashes can hardly be looked at as anything but a good thing, particularly if lives are saved—so long as privacy is protected.
Whether it is a good or bad thing to use that data as a tool to capture speeders who may well be endangering other motorists is an interesting question. Is TomTom serving its customers, community safety, or its business demands. Can all three be addressed fairly?
Well, what do you think? Would this make you angry or would you even care at all?
Have you ever turned on the GPS and received directions somewhere and completely ignored them? I don’t think I have ever done that. Turns out though a lot of men do…. It’s not because they don’t listen but they mistrust the directions. In turn they disobey what the GPS is telling them to do and end up having to be rerouted by the GPS. Does this confirm the fact that men hate getting directions? I think so!
According to a survey done in the United Kingdom 83% of men will regularly disobey the GPS’ directions, only 75% of women admitted to disobeying the GPS.
More than half of the 3,000 drivers surveyed by insurance retailer Swinton said that directions provided by a GPS devices had caused an argument with a passenger. Over one third of drivers said their navigation system had led them anywhere from one to five miles off course.
Regardless of gender, the majority of drivers reported that they considered their GPS “untrustworthy” and “inaccurate.” Almost two-thirds of drivers said that they still stow a road map in their car “just in case.”
Do you trust directions from your GPS? And do you think survey results would be the same for men and women in the United States?
Ok, so you have to tell me…. When you are driving in your new or used Honda do you ignore what the GPS tells you to do and just do what you think is the best?
GPS systems are great. They help you get to your location when you are lost, they are hands free and help you focus on the road instead of your cell phone when you are trying to get somewhere. They can also help you find cheap gas for your new or used Honda! I just love how Consumer Reports has that low down on GPS systems.
With gasoline prices continuing to rise, now seems like as good time as any to point out a feature available on some mid-level and premium portable GPS devices that can save drivers money: Gas price locator.
Found on connected devices, including some high-scoring models from Garmin (Nuvi 1690) and TomTom (740 Go Live), a gas price locator can show the local pump prices and help you find the lowest-rate gas stations.
While we don’t score GPS devices based on this ancillary feature, we have used it and found it to helpful and surprisingly accurate. It isn’t always perfect, as the data can lag behind the actual changes made at a gas station. When the number are a few hours or a day behind, we found it can still be a useful guide. The stations that are cheapest today will likely be cheapest tomorrow.
To get this feature, you may have to purchase a device that is pricier than the entry-level, budget models, but should you use the the gas price locator regularly, the savings may make up the difference.
Plus, those uplevel models often have other features that can aid in your commutes and road trips. Some Garmins will even factor fuel economy in its route guidance.
When driving around town in your new or used car do you often need directions? Star Wars Fans I know you are going to love this one!! How would you feel about Darth Vader giving you driving instructions? Thanks to Consumer Blogs for putting this out there. I may just have to get this one.
TomTom portable navigation devices (PNDs) have been known for the ability to customize route guidance with downloadable voices, but this latest addition to the voice catalog takes the concept to a galaxy far, far away. TomTom has introduced the first of four scheduled officially licensed Star Wars voices: Darth Vader.
Available for $12.95, the authentic-sounding voice provides guidance as only a Sith Lord can, complete with references to the Dark Side. To complete the navigator upgrade, there are free Star Wars downloads with start-up screens, sound effects, and car icons.
The next character coming is C-3PO, with Yoda expected to follow in July and Han Solo in August. No word on offering Chewbacca. We imagine that the Yoda voice could be a challenge to interpret, given the big-eared Jedi’s tendency to transpose words.
Check out this video of the recording session with Darth Vader. It’s hysterical!
What do you guys think? Is this something that you would enjoy or run from? Ha ha!
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About Me
Hi, I am Chris Heck and I am the General Manager at Superior Honda in Cincinnati OH. I am a husband, father, automotive enthusiast and an all around fun guy. I wanted to start this blog for a few different reasons. 1. So that you will have the latest Honda news at your fingertips, 2. so that you can learn more about your vehicle whether it's a Honda or not and 3. It just sounded like fun!
If you have any comments about this blog or would like to send some suggestions on a topic you are interested in feel free to send me an email at superior_honda@yahoo.com.
Earlier this month, I talked about the dangers of distracted driving and how distractions affect you visually, manually and cognitively. A recent Consumer Reports article reported that distracted driving plays a part in 80 percent of all car crashes and is responsible for 5,500 fatalities a year.
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