Since 2003 it has become illegal do use a hand held phone while driving and now carries a £60 fine and 3 penalty points in the UK. Society in general has now realised how dangerous this act is, although it still doesn’t seem to concern the majority. Hopefully this will soon change with more and more variations of bluetooth kits becoming available. One of which is the Bluetooth Headset which is also known as Bluetooth Ear Piece.

Bluetooth Headsets have become more popular in recent years. This is for several reasons but mainly due to the awareness of phone driving and the consequences of doing so. There are more bluetooth headsets on the market now than ever before. This growing popularity has had many effects on the current crop of headsets. The design of the ear pieces is more stylish and trendy than ever before, mainly down to the importance of the style and fashion in an image conscious generation. For this reason manufacturers have increased the budget for development of newer products.

As these products are designed to be worn on the ear and on display constantly, small, sleek, smooth and simple kits are seen to be more desirable. The size of these types of kit have reduced over the past few years and a lot are now around the size of a 20p piece and due to this the functionality of them is fairly basic.

So what are Bluetooth Headsets?

Actually more like an ear piece than a headset. The device fits into your ear with most having an arm that loops over your ear to hold in place. The device connects pairs with your phone via bluetooth and allows you to answer and hang up conversations via your mobile phone, but without having to touch the phone. The majority of these devices utilise a one button function method for ease of use, in which one tap will answer the incoming call and the next tap will hang up the conversation. The microphone is usually built in to the ear piece to improve the design and functionality.

This has its obvious advantages, one of which is these devices allow you be contactable while you drive. Just a simple tap of the device button while you’re driving connects the conversation through the bluetooth headset. Meaning you can hear and talk to the contact perfectly while you concentrate on driving. Obviously this reduces the chances of an accident significantly assuming you would have previously been fumbling around for the phone, then driving one handed for the duration of the call.

Usually Bluetooth Headsets are easy to use and set up. Almost all units pair to your phone in the same way, you switch the device on, press the button and select the device in the phones bluetooth menu. Once Paired you are good to go, just insert the device in your ear & you can accept all calls coming through your mobile.

The quality of the audio produced by these most of these devices is excellent, because the device fits directly into your ear there’s minimal interference outside of the ear piece. Most kits come with a 2 watt speaker which produce a good audio range, so they’re neither to tinny or too much bass’ when people are speaking on the other end.

The majority of these kits are used by professional drivers, who are on the road more often than not. However Bluetooth headsets are very cost effective and are definitely useful for all drivers as your device may save your life without you being aware of it.

A lot of aftermarket products are produced and designed to connect via a ISO harness, certainly the majority of Bluetooth car kits are provided with ISO connections as standard. These kits are designed by their manufacturers specifically because ISO is a standard connection used in a lot of older (and some more recent) vehicles. This system is used for several reasons, but mainly for reducing costs & to keep the products standard without too many SKU’s (Stock Keeping Units) e.g. to remove the need for one kit for each type of vehicle or radio per manufacturer. You can see these will soon add up to a lot of different versions of the same products (SKU’s).

ISO is a universal system that was used by a lot of vehicle manufacturers up to several years ago. The ISO connection is made up of a group of wires, which all have a standard and specific position within the harness. Each wire within the harness represents a specific connection to a device within the vehicle. For example the front right, back right, front left and back left speakers always hold the same position within the ISO harness no matter which vehicle it is located in. This allows the manufacturers of the products to produce a kit that operates in exactly the same way no matter what the device is connected too. By using ISO harness’s you negate the need to piggy back and/or solder connections when fitting the product. 

However more and more manufacturers are starting to use their own wiring systems within their vehicles, this creates a small problem when installing the kits as connections will have to be made manually if the harness is different. So connecting specific speaker wires to the correct equivalent within the harness (each case will be different for the majority of vehicles) there is an easy alternative to this problem, the ISO2CAR adapter.

ISO2CAR wiring harnesses are made specifically to avoid this problem. There are around 20 to 30 different types of harness’ available covering the vast majority of vehicles. The ISO2CAR harness is a connection device that will connect into the products ISO harness, then into the vehicle harness making the installation much more simple and pain free. The vast majority of vehicles now use their own wiring systems so ISO2CAR adapters are more important when installing aftermarket devices into your vehicle.

ISO2CAR harnesses can be used when the vehicle doesn’t have an amplified or upgraded audio system, if this is the case a Drive and Mute cable will be needed where available.

Technorati Profile

Over the past ten years Bluetooth car kits have become more and more popular and mainstream in society. This is mainly down to the fact that mobile phones are more common place and have a more prominent role within people’s lives, and the fact we are all travelling in our vehicles more as part of our daily routine. When you combine the two it easy to see why we feel the need to use our mobile phones while we are driving, especially if we are going to be driving for a period of time without stopping.

Our attitudes have changed in recent times and certainly in the past five to ten years, we now feel the need to be contactable 24/7, and often feel naked without our mobiles or some form of technology to hand. This is in-part due the internet boom in the late 90’s where information was made easily and readily available, and more recently trends such as facebook, twitter & myspace that allow us be “in contact” with all of our friends and family and have up to the minute news & info at the touch of a button. On the whole this new technology is a movement in the right direction however it has caused an “impatient” attitude with most people of the current generation, who tend to want everything instantly. This feel instant gratification can lead to misjudgements in decision making. Probably one of the major factors why more people are using their mobile phones while they drive, and certainly one of the major causes for road accidents on our roads today!

What are Bluetooth Car Kits and why are they Important?

 The Bluetooth kit trend started roughly 10 years ago and takes advantage of the built in function of the majority of, if not all new mobile phones. Bluetooth Car Kits such as Parrot and Bury connect to your phone via the Bluetooth function. Once connected the kits act as the Phone and allow a user interface with the phone through the Bluetooth Kit. New Bluetooth car kits such as the Parrot MKi9200 and the Bury CC9060 allow the user to navigate through the mobile phone using its functions like; phonebook, text message, dial etc without having to touch the phone at all, just leave it in your pocket or handbag. The Wireless technology means you can just get in your car and go.

Bluetooth Car Kits are becoming ever more important in the modern world as they allow you to be contactable when you’re driving, many people who don’t use a bluetooth kit while driving may feel they are capable of answering the phone or reading a text message without it. However this is proven to cause accidents as a result of dangerous driving, which is why the police and politicians have cracked down on phone drivers. Issuing a mandatory £60 fine and a 3 Point penalty to anybody caught in the act.

The Aid of a Bluetooth car kit allows you communicate with anybody safely and legally without having to break contact with the steering wheel or eye contact with the road leaving you to concentrate on driving. Even though Bluetooth car kits provide a safer means to communicate and drive ultimately you are responsible for driving in a safe manner. The police can still prosecute for dangerous driving if you are using the phone while driving through the Bluetooth kit if you are driving erratically or dangerously.

Leading manufacturers in Bluetooth 

Bluetooth Car Kits have become a very popular accessory within the vehicle world, and many leading brands predict a 3 billion pound market for bluetooth products across Europe in 2010. Parrot and Bury are the leaders in the aftermarket car kits, specifically to factory fitted car stereos and are already developing further kits on the back of the latest successful Parrot bluetooth MKI Range and Bury CC9060 units. The latest kits take advantage of the latest technology boom and utilise new and improved features such as advanced voice recognition software where virtually all menus are accessible via voice commands, and no training is required before hand. Just simply narrate the menu title and the function you would like to perform, e.g. dial… In Car Network, the phone dials the number associated with that contact. Other advanced functions include iPod integration, where tracks, videos & artwork are displayed across the screen, SD card & USB input allow additional sources of media and little features like text to voice so text messages can be read aloud, negating the need fumble around looking for and reading incoming texts.

The Bottom line is that these Kits are much safer to use than your mobile phone, if fact any Bluetooth car kit is. Even the basic ones which only provide simple functions allow you to concentrate on driving, reducing road accidents & deaths. Either Use a Bluetooth Car Kit or don’t use your phone at all.

We all know that driving and using a mobile phone is a big no no, nearly all of us (if not all of us) know that doing so is illegal. Yet a lot of the public continue to do so. Legislation was introduced in the UK in December 2003 that allows police officers to punish drivers if they are caught using a hand held device whilst driving. Originally this figure was £30, but has since been raised to £60 with a maximum of £2000 if the offence goes to court and 3 points on your licence, as the offence is seen to be dangerous.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) know that between 1998 and early 2003 there have been 20 deaths on Britain’s roads involving mobile phones. This doesn’t sound particularly high however a spokeswoman for RoSPA states this could be the "tip of the iceberg" as road accidents are not recorded systematically & on most occasions its extremely difficult to detect if a mobile was being used at the time of or before the accident. Further in-depth searching into phone records can be carried out by the police if they believe this to be the case.

David Jamieson, Road Safety Minister at the time stated: "You are four times more likely to be involved in an accident when using a mobile phone and driving – and this new offence will help make our roads safer"  Its thought that the physical act of using the mobile phone and breaking contact with the road induce a lack of concentration while the offenders drive, which is ultimately the cause of the accident.

However David Jamieson goes on to say "Today’s new offence applies to hand-held mobiles – but using any type of phone while driving increases the risk of having an accident. Remember the police can use other powers to prosecute a driver if they are distracted by a call on a hands-free phone."

Bluetooth Car Kits are seen as a better and safer option than manually using the mobile, however it important to remember that distractions can come in many forms especially when we become engrossed in a conversation, it’s the drivers responsibility to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Modern bluetooth car kits allow the drivers to control devices in a much more user-friendly way, many of which can now be operated via voice command & without having to remove your hands from the steering wheel. However it is the drivers responsibility to drive safely and judge road conditions, if the conditions are dangerous its wise not to use your mobile phone at all.