[hector_vasquez]

This seems like an eminently solvable problem.

My car knows when its key fob is inside it with great precision, to the point that I cannot even lock the doors while it is inside. My iPhone knows when it is itself in the car, so when I want to use it while driving, I have to dismiss a warning message, which I adeptly do with muscle memory.

Seems to me if cars supported driver and passenger authentication, most illegal device usage could be stopped rather trivially.

[teeray]

The problem is that many authentication mechanisms could create a dangerous skinner box for drivers that have decided to flout the laws and text anyway. If we have phone users prove they’re not driving by solving math puzzles or tapping a flashing square or something, you will have a driver that attempts to do that while driving. The same goes for doing something like putting an NFC pad in the passenger door. There will be SOME driver out there that will attempt to reach across the car while driving to unlock their phone.

Allowing passengers to use devices in any capacity makes it extremely difficult to build technological solutions to this.

[SketchySeaBeast]

Couldn't the driver just authenticate as a passenger? It's not a good assumption to assume that, because there's only one cell phone in the car, it's going to be the drivers, so I don't know know an approach where the driver just can't circumvent the restriction.

[hector_vasquez]

The car would need to authenticate the driver as the driver, and each passenger as a passenger. Plenty of ways to do it. As an iPhone user, TouchID and FaceID come to mind.

[SketchySeaBeast]

That could be an option, I suppose. Not looking forward to the day I can't drive my rental car because I own an Android.