All I wish for is hands-free texting

[SoCal Rob]

It's true that not everyone abides by these rules, but while driving people need to accept that you aren't always reachable.

You keep writing about how other people need to behave as if the recipient has control over them. Maybe it’s just that I’m not as good at getting people to do what I want them to do when communicating with me?

That's the thing with younger people, they may not use the phone to call but they usually aren't expecting an immediate response to a text.

We clearly have different experiences here since what you’re describing is more like an email: a single communication from a sender which typically has no followup until a response is received from the recipient.

What I tend to see with people young enough to almost exclusively text isn’t a single text followed by patient waiting. The texts are typically written in a format completely different from email and come in a stream of multiple short texts which leads to a bunch of notifications. Unless you can read the text, you don’t know if the content is just this one brief thought per message or an urgent message with requests for a response.

How often in life do you even get a legitimately urgent message? Couple times a year?

In the last three years I’ve gotten three legitimately urgent text messages. I received two immediately and was able to take action but the third, which I put off reading because I was busy, haunts me to this day and made me realize that I will never again put off reading a message from someone I know. Period.

People's definitions of urgent differ too. Personally urgent is someone dying or an otherwise extremely time-sensitive and vital message. Even most work things aren't so critical that they can't wait 20 minutes unless you're a surgeon or a bomb technician or something like that.

Yes, deaths, ambulance-delivered emergency room visits, and developing cybersecurity events all qualify as urgent to me. If you haven’t missed these sorts of things because the sender, while under extreme stress and/or in a loud environment where a voice call isn’t possible chose texting, then consider yourself lucky.

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[Donald Stanfield]

You keep writing about how other people need to behave as if the recipient has control over them. Maybe it’s just that I’m not as good at getting people to do what I want them to do when communicating with me?

You’re right you can’t control other people’s behavior but you can control yours. I have a good friend who doesn’t respond to texts same day most times. It’s how she is, and she will tell everyone flat out.

If you want to get ahold of her you need to text her wife or her dad or call her a bunch of times. She doesn’t give other people the option, I don’t as well. People know if they text me to me that means something I don’t need to urgently respond to.

I am not even trying to say everyone has to do things the way I do, but I see a common thread with those who seem to need text connectivity. That common thread is stress. In this society it’s easy to get lost in technology and not realize that you don’t have to live on edge ready to respond at a moment’s notice.

There are workarounds, for me people need to call. Everyone who needs to know that does know that including work employees. If I happen to be in a place that is too loud to take a call I’ll either not answer but text them immediately or excuse myself and step outside or away to a quieter place.

I do all this because I’ve spent years in constant contact, even time being on call and I feel, rightly or wrongly, that I’ve earned the right to not be at everyone’s beck and call 24-7. It seems like I’m being judgmental or lecturing those people who need to text but all I’m trying to do is offer an alternative to one aspect of our existence that IMO sucks.

 

[Gratedwasabi]

I've yet to see anything but strawman arguments against Rivian having a basic feature of modern cars.

"You shouldn't be texting" is a nonsense argument. It's irrelevant. I don't care about your opinion on how I live my life and run my business.

Texts being read by the car while driving is a standard, basic feature of cars. Rivian claims their software is superior to Carplay and Auto yet it can't do a very basic feature.

It's objectively a failure and one Rivian needs to fix.

 

[SoCal Rob]

You’re right you can’t control other people’s behavior but you can control yours. I have a good friend who doesn’t respond to texts same day most times. It’s how she is, and she will tell everyone flat out.

If you want to get ahold of her you need to text her wife or her dad or call her a bunch of times. She doesn’t give other people the option, I don’t as well. People know if they text me to me that means something I don’t need to urgently respond to.

I am not even trying to say everyone has to do things the way I do, but I see a common thread with those who seem to need text connectivity. That common thread is stress. In this society it’s easy to get lost in technology and not realize that you don’t have to live on edge ready to respond at a moment’s notice.

There are workarounds, for me people need to call. Everyone who needs to know that does know that including work employees. If I happen to be in a place that is too loud to take a call I’ll either not answer but text them immediately or excuse myself and step outside or away to a quieter place.

I do all this because I’ve spent years in constant contact, even time being on call and I feel, rightly or wrongly, that I’ve earned the right to not be at everyone’s beck and call 24-7. It seems like I’m being judgmental or lecturing those people who need to text but all I’m trying to do is offer an alternative to one aspect of our existence that IMO sucks.

Believe me, I wish I could go the more disciplined and disconnected route! I think that most of us in the U.S. would say that being unreachable is a luxury rather than the norm. I have zero doubts that you earned this luxury and I both dread and look forward to the day that I have it, too, since the only thing really keeping me from that is my mom.

Please try to understand, though, that many people out there have circumstances which prevent being disconnected and senders who will not change their habits.

edit: typos

 

[razmataz]

As FYI, from what I see on the surface the hand-free messaging hooks (or APIs), which is a building block within the bluetooth ivi architecture is (should be) available and called MAP (messaging access profile). Nothing new or sexy here and but it works so similar to when you say: Alexa call John Doe, you should be able to say: Alexa message John Doe.

For those who are curious here is the reference : https://source.android.com/docs/automotive/ivi_connectivity

Not sure if google has a sunset on these profiles or Bluetooth standards body is doing away... and Rivian is trying to refactor it in-house to future proof.

 

[emoore]

I've yet to see anything but strawman arguments against Rivian having a basic feature of modern cars.

"You shouldn't be texting" is a nonsense argument. It's irrelevant. I don't care about your opinion on how I live my life and run my business.

Texts being read by the car while driving is a standard, basic feature of cars. Rivian claims their software is superior to Carplay and Auto yet it can't do a very basic feature.

It's objectively a failure and one Rivian needs to fix.

It's a failure to you but not to others and that's ok. We all have to live with what Rivian has and what it will change. You'll have to decide if it's worth keeping a car that doesn't have features you want.

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