Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "Court Says Single Touch of Phone While Driving is ‘Distracted’" video.

There's often times a carve out for certain types of professional driving. Plus, the cops do need to be able to communicate in some fashion while driving, especially in the modern era where there might not even be a second cop in the car.
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From what I can tell, that's changing because customers hate not being able to safely use those controls without taking their eyes off the road. The old controls had a lot of features built into them that allowed you to feel your way around the panel to the various controls without taking your eyes off the road. It was still somewhat distracting, but because you were still able to keep your eyes on the road, you could stop doing so if you needed to suddenly concentrate with minimal interference with your driving. My wife's Ford has a touch screen, but most of the essential controls also have a physical button on the steering wheel/column and the essential display bits are behind the steering wheel as well to help you to use them quickly. And a bunch of the stuff just isn't accessible at all if you're moving.
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@Metqa If you're in town, you can do it at a stop light, if you're on the freeway though, you may not have a safe opportunity to do so. Back in olden days, it was a simple knob that didn't require you to look at all.
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