Cars these days use many smart devices to warn and remind drivers of seat belts like buzzers and bells.  It is about time another problem was taken charge of using cell phones for talking and text messaging while driving.

Several car gadgets companies have come to realize that creating a widespread effective solution is not just a tough job but it is also not as simple as putting up reminders.

Although many states have banned drivers from using mobile phones, this has not seemed to reduce the number of crashes.  This is possibly because drivers continue to flout laws for their own safety.

Some start ups have managed to produce applications which are designed to deter drivers from using mobile  phones while driving.  However, the problem is that they work on only certain type of phones and they have a difficult time figuring if the cell phone user is really driving or not.

The important players are still  to step in and help such as wireless carriers, auto manufacturers and the federal government.  Small companies are not being able to promote widespread use and their tools might not really be able to improve safety.

Drive Safely Corp is proposing phone software that can detect if the phone  device is faster than fifteen miles per hour using a GPS chip.  It will display  a series of letters and numbers which need to be matched from the keypad to unlock the phone.  They assume that matching will not be possible while driving and hence the phone will not unlock for texting.  But this can prove dangerous for a determined driver.

There are other services with software tools like Textecution, CellSafety, TxtBlocker and ZoomSafer use the GPS chip of the phone to know if the cell phone user is moving.  They hold incoming messages in quarantine till after the trip and block the user from writing new ones.  These are expensive in comparison to regular downloadable applications.  Some of them cost 40 dollars with 4 dollars a month recurring fees. Parents of teens will pay for this just for feeling secure.  But since they have an option of override, a determined person will still take advantage of it.

Key2SafeDriving and Cellcontrol are using another approach, that of using the car to let the phone know  if it is moving.  They have a gadget which plugs into the car’s port.  This was originally intended for mechanics to diagnose car problems but it also manages to let the gadget know how fast the vehicle is moving.  Above a specific speed, the Bluetooth receiver of the phone receives a wireless signal and the phone application locks out some features of the phone.

This method does not drain the battery of the GPS although its software does not work if the phone has not been set up for a particular transmitter.  But a common problem in both methods is that these applications run only on certain phones like BlackBerry, Windows Mobile or high end expensive Nokia phones.  Phone like iPhone that lack smart OS systems like are of no use here.

The optional sync system of the Ford Motor Co links phone to the car controls, It reads out messages and can understand spoken commands. But replacing manual manipulation with voice commands remains questionable as research shows that mobile phone conversations distract drivers irrespective of whether or not they use handsfree.

Cellcontrol, iZup and DriveSafely are some other services for curbing distractions from your phone while driving, but the real challenge really seems to be to make the drivers just drive!