• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 10, 2019

A lot has been written lately about the battle for control of the automobile dashboard, which has been dubbed the last unconquered screen in people’s lives. 

The Wall Street Journal wrote a big piece a few days ago talking about the billions in ad revenue at stake and all the location data purveyors, marketers, agencies, content producers and others that want a little more of your attention when you’re behind the wheel so they can cash in. 

Distracted driving is already enough of a hazard — thousands are killed each year in accidents where a driver is messing with a phone, texting or reading a text or talking.

I read somewhere that reading a text for five seconds while driving at 55 miles per hour is the equivalent of driving at that speed with your eyes closed for the length of a football field. 

Really not a good idea. 

Imagine how distracting an episode of "Game of Thrones" would be or even a well done 30-second ad. Or 10 seconds for that matter. 

Whatever technology they come up with to serve content into car dashboards, it should impose a speed limit on how fast the driver can go while watching content other than a GPS device. 

Zero miles per hour sounds about right to me. Happy Distracted Driving Awareness Month.