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In-car Twittering on the rise?

Insurers scan Twitter for evidence of Tweeting drivers

Cloud based data management

OnStar recently denied it was designing an in-car gadget for voice-activated Twittering from behind the wheel. But such a gadget could well prove handy, because it’s been discovered that Tweeting on the move is an alarmingly common driver activity.

Insurance firm Esure recently "monitored" - interesting ramifications for privacy, that claims - “driving-related Tweets” on Twitter for seven days and discovered that dozens of motorists each day update their pages while driving.

For example, one driver updated their Twitter page to say: “Driving with my knees and peeling an orange... Probably not the safest thing to be doing."

Other drivers updated their Twitter pages to say: “Driving school bus," “Driving up to Newcastle while we Tweet!” and “Is it wise to use Twitter while driving? Probably not.”

It’s worth reading the Tweets with a pinch of salt, though, because some could have been written by passengers or people pretending to be driving while Twittering.

However, Esure also questioned 1000 UK motorists and discovered that - despite 92 per cent knowing it’s illegal to hold and use a phone while driving, 45 per cent still admitted to texting or making calls while behind the wheel.

Mike Pickard, Head of Risk and Underwriting at Esure, said motorists updating Twitter from behind the wheel are a real cause for concern.

“Constantly updating friends and family on what we're doing is now becoming the norm,” he said. “Our advice to motorists is to remove this temptation altogether by switching off all mobile technology before driving.” ®

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Latest Comments

In car!!!!

'In car twittering' are these people really that dense.

Stop twattering and start concentrating on your driving.

Unless it is your intention to commit murder, spend a long time in prison, only see your families by visitation only, then please carry on.

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Loveshack

So the dream of the web - where everyone comes together and learns from each other - becomes a nightmare as information of any value is replaced by worthless lines and irrelevant promotional messages.

I'd like to know about the feasibility of a parallel web, one without the continual selling, the need to be SEO optimised and competition for search engine eye time, the continual exposure to blogs, twits, forums and message boards. One where simple, plain, empirical information is available for viewing by all.

And no, this is not a bit of guff for wikipedia.

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