Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps [telecom]

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Voluntary guidelines will be issued amid a spike in traffic fatalities in the last two years.

By Neal E. Boudette

Apple iPhones and other hand-held devices have long had an airplane mode that shuts off wireless communications to prevent interference with the vast electronics systems that control modern aircraft.

Now federal auto safety regulators want makers of these devices to add a driver mode to modify or block certain apps and features to keep a driver's attention on the road.