Bluetooth hands free driving in USA

To raise awareness and seek solutions for unnecessary teen deaths on the road, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) developed National Teen Safe Driving Week, scheduled this year for Oct. 17-23.

According to NHTSA, in 2008, more than 3,750 teens ages 15 through 19 died in automobile crashes of all types, and almost 660, or 18 percent, of those were killed in crashes involving some form of distracted driving.

When people hear distracted driving, they automatically think of texting while driving because that has been the focus in the news. Distracted driving comes in many forms, including talking on the phone, texting, eating and putting on makeup. However, mobile phone use is the form of distracted driving that can be controlled the most via state laws and the array of hands-free devices that are available.

Parrot supports safe driving and hands-free when it’s absolutely critical to take a call while on the road. We’ve supported the Distracted Driving Summit and have pledged our support for Oprah’s No Phone Zone.

For more information about teen driving safety, visit www.nhtsa.gov, www.distraction.gov and www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov.

This month, Maryland and Massachusetts both had laws banning talking while driving become effective Oct. 1.

In Maryland, handheld phones are banned while driving, so drivers must avoid calls or use a hands-free speaker system. The state already had a ban on texting while driving last year.

For Massachusetts, drivers cannot text while driving, and news drivers ages 16 and 17 cannot use a phone or any electronics while driving. Drivers 18 and older can still talk while driving but are required to keep one hand on the steering wheel.

State by state, it’s becoming a nationwide ban on texting while driving. And in several states, talking on handheld phones is against the law.

Keep up with the changes by following Parrot on Twitter (@Parrot_US). Remember, the purchase of a speaker system can be a lot less costly than a traffic ticket!

Each year at this time, several articles are published about the top gadgets and must-haves for back to school. However, one thing that some don’t always consider are those gadgets for student drivers. What do student drivers need to remain safe and alert behind the wheel?

Of course, our focus here are Parrot is hands-free, so we recommend that students have what they need when in the car.

A portable option for students is the Parrot Minikit Slim, which slips on to a visor and can be paired with up to five phones for family and multiple vehicle use. For an installed option, the MKi9200 not only serves as hands-free for calls but also can play music from an iPod, iPhone or MP3 player.

Some students are driving themselves to school for the first time or driving off to college and new jobs. Do your student a favor and train them early to be hands-free!

You hear it all in the news – people getting into traffic accidents for talking on the phone, texting while driving and now tweeting while driving. Police are investigating if plastic surgeon Frank Ryan tweeted while driving as he headed over a cliff and died in California.

It’s becoming an ongoing issue to the extent that the U.S. Department of Transportation is planning a second Distracted Driving Summit.

Parrot supports Oprah “No Phone Zone” movement and encourages drivers to pull over if they need to text, email or engage in a serious conversation.

When you have to take or make a call from the car, use a hands-free device, and encourage your friends and family to do the same. There are enough distractions and hazards to pay attention to while driving, and updating your status shouldn’t be one of them.

Some Parrot employees will be heading to the BlogHer conference this year. If you regularly read about our efforts around hands-free legislation here, you might be wondering “what’s a BlogHer?”

This yearly conference of women bloggers is an important audience for companies around the globe that seek to understand social networking.

For Parrot, we’re hoping to use our time to get to know people, learn about issues with hands-free compliance and educate those who want to learn about hands-free devices. We’ll also hear about issues that bloggers face and hear from “voices of the year” where bloggers read their favorite blog posts.

Yes, Parrot is more than hands-free: we have a Designer Collection of luxury iPod and iPhone accessories, including Zikmu by Philippe Starck and the Grande Specchio digital photo frame that runs on Android. And, a little something up our sleeve called the AR.Drone, a quadricopter piloted by an iPhone or iPod Touch.

We’re providing a couple of bloggers with the Parrot Minikit Slim so their drive to BlogHer is hands free and safe. Hope to see you there! If you’re driving to BlogHer, leave us a comment or tweet us @Parrot_us to find out how to receive yours.

A recent article on Canada.com discusses a survey from the British Columbia Automobile Association regarding drivers and the hands-free law, which went into effect on Jan. 1 in the province.

Since that time, drivers say they still see other drivers talking or texting while driving. For themselves, drivers say they use a hands-free device, pull over to take a call or don’t use the phone at all while driving.

From Canada.com’s North Shore News:

Of the two-thirds of drivers who said they talked on a cellphone while driving before the Jan. 1 law, 84 percent said they did so using a hand-held phone. And of those drivers who used a hand-held phone before Jan. 1, 21 percent said they have switched to hands-free, 35 percent said they now pull over to make or take a call and 28 percent said they have stopped using a phone while driving altogether.

While pulling over is the safest option, if you need to take a call while driving, it’s convenient to have a hands-free device available. And for less than the cost of a ticket for violating the law, a Parrot hands-free device can save you time and money.

Do you pull over, don’t talk, or go hands free?

We usually write about hands-free driving here at the Parrot North American blog, but we’re excited to talk about another of our product lines, Parrot’s Designer Collection.

Specifically, the Parrot Zikmu by Philippe Starck is now available in three new colors – White Arctic, Grey Pearl and Lime Sorbet – in addition to a new Web interface and software update.

Many of our customers who use an iPhone with their hands-free devices are also interested in luxury iPod accessories. Our Zikmu speakers are designed for iPhone and iPod Touch users who want amazing sound quality with wireless iPod speakers that create an instant home theater sound.

The Zikmu wireless speakers communicate wirelessly with each other allowing the pair to be positioned anywhere in any room. The dedicated iPod® / iPhone™ docking station and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies allows you to dock your iPhone, iPod, or iPod Touch and recharge it while controlling the music through a remote.  Additionally, you can stream audio wirelessly from your Mac, iPhone, smartphone, PC or MP3 players via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Finally, an analogue Hi-fi input enables you to connect your CD players or TV set.

And if you take a look, please let us know what color is your favorite.

Four states – Michigan, Nebraska, Wyoming and Iowa – have new hands-free laws that went into effect on July 1. Georgia follows closely behind, with its law scheduled for July 15.

Signed into law in April when Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the law prohibits reading, typing or texting while driving a vehicle. Parrot, with North American headquarters in Southfield, Mich., encouraged employees to sign Winfrey’s “No Phone Zone” pledge.

Drivers in Wyoming are now banned from texting, reading or writing on handheld devices while driving.

Iowa’s law prohibits drivers from reading emailing and texting while operating a vehicle. Also, drivers with a restricted, graduated or minor-school license cannot use a handheld mobile device while driving for any reason.

In Nebraska, texting while driving is a secondary offense with a $200 fine and three points removed from a driver’s license.

And finally, beginning July 15, adults and young drivers in Georgia are prohibited from reading, typing and texting while driving. Young drivers are prohibited from making calls in addition to the other bans.

To keep drivers’ hands on the wheel and focused on the road, Parrot’s hands-free options include the Parrot Minikit Slim that requires no installation, and the Parrot MKi9200, an installed hands-free kit that also streams music.

To find out more about the Parrot’s hands-free Bluetooth technology, visit www.parrot.com.

And during this holiday week (July 1 is Canada Day and July 4 is America’s Independence Day), keep your hands on the wheel and be mindful of state-by-state laws as you travel. For less than the cost of a ticket (and no points!), you can be hands-free.

Has your state or province recently enacted a hands-free law? With 25 states and counting in the U.S. and several provinces in Canada that now have primary or secondary offenses for those driving and texting or talking on a handheld device, drivers are realizing that they need to quickly find a solution to keep communicating while commuting.

If your car doesn’t come equipped with Bluetooth, a headset earpiece is not your only option. Parrot has plug-and-play and installed hands-free options to keep you talking and listening to your music while in the car. Here are a couple of options:

Parrot Minikit Slim: a portable Bluetooth hands-free kit that can be used in the car, in the office and at home. It’s highly intuitive, so it automatically connects to a Bluetooth phone when nearby. The Minikit Slim also automatically imports your address book and assigns voice tags to each entry, so you can start off calling people by saying the name. And it pairs with up to five phones if you have family members that may use your vehicle.

Parrot MKi9200: a Bluetooth hands-free system with a high-resolution color screen. The MKi9200 also imports your address book and assigns voice tags. It’s also compatible with all music sources, such as iPods, iPhones, USB flash drives, Bluetooth stereo (A2DP) phones and MP3 players. The color screen displays the caller’s number and image that’s in your address book. For music, it displays the album cover and name of the song.

Earpieces aren’t your only option when it comes to hands-free. If you’re considering an installed option, look for a Parrot Certified Installer.

Individual states continue to review and enact new hands-free driving laws, and now worldwide organizations are paying attention to distracted driving issues.

With the news recently that the United Nations has banned texting while driving by its nearly 90,000 employees, the issue of texting while driving is becoming a global issue.

In the United States, half of the states have some form of ban on texting while driving, a number that continues to change rapidly. Recently, Maryland announced it will ban handheld devices on Oct. 1.

To keep up-to-date on laws by state, Hands-Free Info keeps track of each state’s hands-free laws. Hands-Free Info also has a great distracted driving blog.

In addition to texting, some states are also looking at banning headphones behind the wheel.

We at Parrot think the best course of action is to pull over or wait until you’ve reached your destination to take a call or look at your mobile device. And of course, the best way to listen to your iPod or MP3 player is to connect it to your audio system.

Remember to always be hands free, no matter which state or province you live in.