Posted on 01/18/2017 2:02:20 PM PST by Swordmaker
Suit seeks to halt all iPhone sales in California
MLG Automotive Law has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc., seeking to enjoin the company from selling further iPhones until it installs “texting and driving safeguards.” The lawsuit, Julio Ceja v. Apple Inc. (Case No. BC647057), was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The lawsuit alleges that Apple puts profit before consumer safety. According to the filing, the company has had the technology to prevent texting and driving since 2008 – and even received a patent on it in 2014 – but refuses to use it over concerns that it will lose market share to other phone-makers who do not limit consumer use. In the last three months of 2016, Apple generated $8.5 billion in net profit, and at the end of its fiscal year had $238 billion of cash on hand.
The lawsuit claims that, based on data provided by the Federal Highway Administration and the California Highway Patrol, Apple’s iPhones are responsible for 52,000 automobile accidents in California each year, and an average of 312 deaths.
“Texting and driving has become one of the most serious issues that confronts all of us on a daily basis,” said Jonathan Michaels, the founding member of MLG Automotive Law, in a statement. “The number of people who have been being killed or injured is astonishing. It has to stop.” Michaels continued, “Legislating against drivers will unfortunately not solve the problem. The relationship consumers have with their phones is just too great, and the ability to slide under the eye of the law is just too easy. Embedding lock-out devices is the only solution.”
Julio Ceja of Costa Mesa, California was injured in an accident caused by a driver who was on her iPhone. The class action is brought on behalf of all California residents, and seeks to halt all iPhone sales in the state until the lock-out device is employed.
MacDailyNews Take: What about the legitimate use of texting while in a moving vehicle by passengers? An accelerometer doesn’t know who’s driving – or if you’re in a taxi, on a bus, etc.
Apple’s not at fault here. They just have lots of money and, as usual when lawyers are involved, are being wrongly targeted.
I guess that Self Control is passé.
I guess that Self Control is passé.
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Seems so as far as driving/texting is concerned.
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Yep. I am 99% against texting and talking on a cell phone while driving, but I think the movement to blame the phone instead of the user is the same as blaming the gun and not the person who fired it.
Just as soon as a “pull head out of backside” app is installed in users regardless of platform who text and drive.
Amazing how this lawsuit conflates all texting while driving incidents to be caused by using iPhones but not by Android phone users. How is that? The fact is that 42,000 accidents in California are attributed to “distracted driving” not just “texting while driving.”
That distracted driving category includes eating, drinking, shaving, putting on make-up, fiddling with the radio and CD, holding a cellular phone and talking, looking at a map, disciplining unruly kids in the backseat, etc., as well as texting.
Really? I'm impressed -- if I were writing that, I'd be stumped about how to figure out if the phone is being used by the driver or by a passenger. And if it's the passenger, and you disable the phone, they're going to be pissed!
And what about that one time somebody gets abducted and the kidnapper forgets to take the victim's cell before tossing them in the trunk, and they die because their phone wouldn't let them call 911? Samsung's new ad will be "I'd be alive if I only had an Android phone!"
And sexting, if you’re Anthony Weiner!
And what about all the people on public transportation who won’t be able to text? “Women and minorities most affected”!
It’s all about nanny-state power.
Screw’em.
A sane judge would throw this out. A sane judge would recuse himself. But this is California
God I hate legal ho’s.
Screw’ em? No way
F**k ‘em.
I agree. I do think people caught texting and driving should lose their licenses for a year, get 90 days in jail for 2nd offense, and permanent revolked license for third offense.
“Amazing how this lawsuit conflates all texting while driving incidents to be caused by using iPhones”
Exactly.
It is a lawsuit simply to poke and harass Apple because they wouldn’t bow to the altar of All Powerful Government and install a back door into all iPhones.
““Legislating against drivers will unfortunately not solve the problem. “
Start confiscating and crushing the offender’s car...they’ll stop texting while driving.
I just passed a woman yesterday—she was weaving and driving 60 in the middle lane—at least 15 mph slower that traffic. I glanced at her to see what the problem was, and lo and behold—an iPad balanced in the center of the steering wheel and an iPhone cradled against her shoulder!
I didn’t see any Apple employees in her car, but obviously someone was forcing the woman into this dangerous behavior.
It isn’t the phone or the car that’s the problem. I think an app to vote drivers off the road would be a good idea.
I would think this means GPS cannot be turned off so police can track you without you knowing it
sounds like a plan
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