It sounds like a great idea, hypothetically, but would it take as much as six seconds before it started to be abused?

I’d vote a firm no against any such addition to motor vehicle technology.

For truckers it’s great, for the average driver I agree with @Jeruba it would be abused very quickly people would be swearing at each other (you cut me off, you dumbfuck,) type thing the average driver is just not that smart.

@SQUEEKY2 What if they hired some moderators? Like what they do for Fluther? Even include licensing for the driver’s?

No – too distracting. People calling you all the time.

CBs were great in their day, but only a tiny percentage of people had them. Now, with your idea, any idiot with a microphone could bother you.

Cars already communicate with other cars, that’s what brake lights and turn signals are for. And too many people can;t be bothered to signal.

Streets communicate wth drivers, with stop signals, and people ignore them.

@RedDeerGuy1, no, no, no.

Some guy in a red car going 70 on the freeway passes an attractive young lady in a white car going 60 and just has to message her instantaneously, “Hey baby wanna f—-”? How quickly is a moderator going to get there? He’s gone in two more seconds in the fast lane, and she’s grappling with that distraction in the face of all the distractions happening among all the other drivers. Somebody is going to get hurt about ten seconds from now.

As truckers we use it to warn other drivers of things on the road, if the police are doing a speed trap, and just to say hi to other truckers ,and I will admit it gets abused with us as well,when another drivers gets cut off the fowl words go through the roof.

Oh my, no, no, no, no. Cell phones are causing enough mayhem already. Fewer distractions, please, not more.

The entire highway system and all vehicles on it would be connected via computers and cables laid into the road itself. There would be NO HUMAN INTERACTION! There would be no need for traffic lights or stop signs. You could read your paper and drink your coffee undisturbed while commuting to work. Enjoy!

@kritiper, aren’t you describing trains?

The only thing you would see all the time, as an bystander, is a big middle finger.

Building on what @kritiper suggested, we could allow drivers to enter their destination into the computer. That way the computer could tell way in advance where there may be heavy traffic and make adjustments accordingly.

I’d turn mine off if it were on my vehicle.

@Jeruba No. Trains run on tracks and cannot steer. Men are at the controls in the trains and at the monitoring stations along the way. The concept is similar, but cars go where they have to go, not where the tracks take them. MANY more destination possibilities! You tell the car where you want to go and it takes you there.

@Chestnut On my system there is no way to turn it off. Having it on all the time is what does away with traffic lights, stop signs, traffic jams. Like I said: NO HUMAN INTERACTION! It’s all automated!

thinking about this more, people who use Waze already get lots of communication on what’s ahead, whether it be cops or traffic accidents or road hazards.

In California, we have “smart” roads that advise on traffic, travel times, and hazards ahead, based on monitoring traffic flows through imbedded sensors.

Help what?

@SnipSnip Anything.

Not that I can think of.

If the messaging systems were set to blank out bad language, it might work out.

Unless messaging systems can correctly parse a phrase like “Let’s go, Brandon,” no, it won’t.

People would come up with insults that won’t trigger the blank out.

Exactly. We do it now. And not just insults. I don’t see this idea as pointing to a solution of anything, just more problems.

Sorry, @RedDeerGuy1, they can’t all be winners.