Parents loved the idea of a mobile phone that could not be used while driving. Many inventors and companies claimed to find one but the ultimate mobile phone that does not work while driving is yet to arrive.

WQN Inc

This Dallas-based company offered a $10-a-month software. It can disable a cell phone while its owner is driving using GPS technology. The technology helps the software to tell at what speed someone is driving. But it cannot surely tell whether the person is driving or not. WebSafety is the name under which the product is sold.

Aegis Mobility

This Canadian software company, has plans of releasing a similar Global Positioning System-based product with the name DriveAssistT. Aegis may charge a fee of $10 to $20 a month, once the wireless carriers in the U.S. agree to company’s proposal. The DriveAssistT system can disable a phone at driving speeds. It also sends a message to callers or texters mentioning that the person they are trying to reach is too busy driving. But here again the same problem arises- the cell phone may also belong to a non-driver.

There are some other products that do not use GPS systems. But they also have their shortcomings. As the GPS-based software system defaults here, so talk of a hardware-based system is on. But a separate hardware-based solution has its own flaws.

Wally Curry and Xuesong Zhou, affiliated with the University of Utah, have developed a prototype of a key fob device which is wrapped around the ignition key. This device, when the ignition key is flipped or slid opened, controls a cell phone using Bluetooth wireless signals. After the shortcomings were pointed in the device, they considered transforming the key fob into a device that let a driver hit a “quit” button and talk or text at will with some consequence. When the driver does so, his parents get notified and his insurer gets a monthly “driving score” which might increase the driver’s premiums for bad driving.

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