There’s another bout of poorly researched journalism the press this week, which might lead you to think that running a SatNav on a smartphone rather than a bespoke device is illegal.
RAC website (scroll down to “Phone as a sat-nav law”)
I’m no lawyer, but my conclusion is that the specific offence of using a mobile phone while driving only applies if it is being held in hand (or resting on your lap), and does not apply if the phone is fixed to windscreen or dashboard. It is however no defence to say that a hand-held phone is being used only as a SatNav and not as a telephone.
There remains the general catch-all offence of driving without due care and attention (probably not the correct legal title), which basically means that you must concentrate on the road, and not be programming your SatNav, tuning your radio, or shouting at your children, however they are mounted.
In my opinion, and this is a matter of which I have considerable practical experience, following the clear, concise and timely instructions from Waze is a lot safer and less distracting than trying to interpret the ramblings of a human passenger with a paper map.
Disclaimer: this post is the personal opinion of the author and not formal legal advice - you must take responsibility for your own decisions.
Yeah, I’ve seen some poor examples of “journalism” regarding the law change.
From what I can gather, nothing has actually changed, except the amount of points you get (and resulting in a ban if you’ve had you licence less than 2 years).
My understanding of the law is that using a device (by actually touching it) while driving is illegal. Using voice commands is fine, aslong as you are looking at the road.
So having a sat-nav relay instructions (either as a standalone device, or on a mobile phone) is okay, as long as you are not touching the device. Using Waze’s “hand wave” to activate voice commands wouldn’t be illegal (I believe) but touching the screen (even with the 3 finger touch) would be.
Disclaimer: This is just my understanding of it, and is NOT to be taken as fact.
The bit about drivers with under 2 years experience losing their license for using a mobile phone is a bit over hyped by the media as well.
Inexperienced drivers have a lower threshold before they lose their license so anything that gives them 6 points or more is going to result in disqualification.
You say that, but if you are considered as “driving without due care and attention” and you are pulled over, can they blame the fact that you may be looking at the Waze app on your phone?
It’s all a bit of a minefield I think, as technically it’s not against the law to eat a banana at the wheel, but if a police officer thinks it is affecting your driving then you can get points. I guess it all depends on the mood of the police officer on the day! If you have a passenger in the car, let them use the app for you.
Rules 149 and 150 of the Highway Code 2017 are very clear. (Capitalisations are as quoted from the book)
149, You MUST exercise proper vehicle control at all times. You MUST NOT use a hand held mobile phone or similar device …
150 There is a danger of distraction caused by in-vehicle systems such as Satellite Navigation … You MUST exercise proper vehicle control at all times. …
The inference seems clear. Don’t operate your mobile phone for whatever purpose whilst driving unless you can do so hands free. This is a MUST in the Highway Code meaning it is a legal stipulation. There is nothing saying that you MUST NOT use Smartphone or other types of Sat Nav systems, provided you can do so hands free, but you will be breaking the law if you allow yourself to become distracted by them and then fail to keep proper control of the vehicle.
An elevated hazard for Waze users, in their enthusiasm to report incidents, is that they may find themselves concentrating more on reporting issues on the go rather than concentrating the road ahead and around - so stay safe everyone.
(Note, I am not a lawyer or legal expert, I have applied a layman’s interpretation to the rules as stated)
I am new to the forum and have been reading a topic similar to this.
When the new fines were announced in 2017 the Surrey Police posted some advice on twitter.
It clarifies what a hand-held device is, using it whilst in a secure cradle, etc.
The twitter account is mentioned in the first image.
This will make a lot of waze’s interactions illegal, I know you can do it by voice but my mileage on that has varied trying to trigger the Google voice detection with music playing.
This changes nothing - we always considered the earlier version of the law applied to us (hard to claim that Waze wasn’t subject to that version given that the app is constantly exchanging data with the servers) and therefore it’s always been illegal to use Waze whilst driving if you were holding the phone to do so.
The current version of the law doesn’t change this - it’s still just as illegal as it always was to hold the phone whilst using Waze, but nothing has changed with regards to interacting with a phone if it’s set up in a handsfree mount before your journey begins.
As the BBC article clearly states: “Ministers have rejected calls to also ban the use of hands-free function, for example using a sat-nav in a phone cradle.”
If anything, this guidance makes it clear that it is not illegal to use Waze on your phone. As always, the issue has been whether or not the phone is hand-held. The guidance now makes it very clear that mounting your phone in a holder is considered to be “hand-free access”.
From there, it’s down to the standard rules on “staying in control of your vehicle at all times”. It is no more illegal to use Waze on a dash-mounted phone than it is to change radio stations, alter cruise control, change gear or use any other dashboard control - as long as you not distracted and are paying due care & attention to your driving.
Every time there’s a news article, someone comes to the forum to say “Waze is illegal”. It’s not. It wasn’t back in 2017, when we had the last spate of these reports - and at that time, the gov.uk post said much the same thing as it does now. That topic is stickied at the top of the UK sub-forum. I’m merging this topic into it now, so you can scroll back up and see it’s all happened before. :lol:
Don’t tell me you bought their Christmas charity Single. 