Will Smarter Cars Make Us Safer Drivers?

I don't have a self-driving car or anything, but I like to follow what's happening as the technology evolves. Obviously, it's intriguing to think of a future where you sit in a car and do whatever you want to while the car takes you safely to your destination. I often wonder how long it will take to get to that kind of future, and how long it will take to transition from our current road system.

Things are definitely starting to move forward, if not to fully autonomous vehicles, at least on the path to much "smarter" cars. The long-anticipated Tesla Model 3 is finally in full production and its first customers are taking delivery. The Model 3 is the first electric vehicle to combine style and affordability—they start at $35,000—but they seem to offer much more than just an eco-friendly ride.

Autopilot—the same tech we've heard about inside the pricier Model S and Model X—will let the Model 3 cruise down the highway with no hands on the wheel and, soon, even drive itself completely from A to B. That is exciting for the future of cars but there is also a lot of uncertainty. A small fraction of the cars on the road have these self-driving capabilities so there is as much risk from other drivers as anything else. That said, America's youth will grow up with more automated features and less hands-on experience than I did. For example, how many teenagers do you see today driving a manual transmission? One of my daughters does, but most of her friends don't even know how.

I believe there will be growing pains regarding the future of self-driving and driving-assisted cars, but it's coming all the same. Here are some ways it could impact the safety and skills of tomorrow's drivers:

Driver's Education

It's not crazy to think that a baby born today may not have to learn to drive a car in 16 years. In fact, why wait until you're 16 to drive when a car is fully automated? Of course, that's assuming there are no manually-driving cars on the road -- a mixture of autonomous and manual vehicles could be problematic during the transition.

We could see a future where young drivers look up certain rules or know-how on an app or driving how-to guide like it's Wikipedia. Even if they have a driver's license or complete a driver's ed course, the actual driving could be so far and few between that such a guide is always on-hand in the rare event of manually operating a vehicle. I could also imagine a car that would talk to the driver and guide them through procedures, such as getting on a ferry or dealing with unusual situations.

Rural vs Urban Driving

Cities will adopt self-driving cars just fine, but what about the old pickup truck and the dirt roads? We may see a culture/class separation between the automatic and manual cars during this transition period, with younger people sitting back in urban areas and older people driving out in the country. How will the law handle that? Most likely, rural drivers will have a special license to drive outside the city limits, but the urban roads could go self-driving-only sooner than we think.

I can imagine that the future may bring us certain models of cars that are intended for offroad and special uses. I can't see an all-electric car with limited range being the best choice for rural or "off the grid" use, so we may see hybrid vehicles or alternative fuel sources, such as fusion reactors at some point in the future.

Insurance Premiums

Self-driving cars are designed to reduce accidents and make driving safer, so what does that mean for the people who still choose to drive even when self-driving cars are readily available? A world of self-driving cars will surely disrupt the insurance industry, but what will those premiums look like for those who want their hands on the wheel? Likely two things—they'll pay more, but they'll also be overall better drivers since only enthusiasts will want the extra cost for the added freedom. I imagine that manual driving will be prohibited on high-volume roads like the US's interstate highways.

Semi-Auto Driving

Let's step back into the present—many cars on the road may not be self-driving but they do have assisted driving features. This includes lane assist, smart cruise control, early brake detection, and more. They're supposed to keep us safe, but do they make us safer drivers? Some argue they make us lazy behind the wheel while others say it reduces collisions, so what does it matter? One thing that's certain, however, is that this technology isn't going anywhere and it's up to us as drivers to stay alert until true self-driving is here.

What do you think? Future or fantasy?

4 Reasons Why You Need to Be More Safety-Conscious

Are you safe? Unfortunately, many Americans aren’t as safe as they think. In 2014, 136,000 Americans died accidentally, according to the American Safety Council. Accidental overdoses have overtaken car crashes as the No. 1 killer of Americans, and deaths from falls are up 63 percent over the last decade due to an aging population. Meanwhile, one in 36 U.S. homes will be burglarized this year, according to FBI data. And a record 15.4 million U.S. consumers became victims of identity theft last year, a Javelin Strategy & Research report found.

Safety risks lurk everywhere. Fortunately, taking proactive steps can mitigate the most common safety threats. Here are reasons why you should be more safety-conscious, along with some tips to help you stay safe:

Reasons to Be Safety-Conscious

The first reason to be more safety-conscious is to protect your health. Many American have unsafe dietary habits - let's take a look at some numbers:

One in five adults failing to eat vegetables every day, and four in 10 neglect to eat fruit daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Half of U.S. adults don’t get enough aerobic exercise, says the Department of Health and Human Services.

As a result of these and other poor health habits, one in three Americans has at least one cardiovascular disease, according to the American Heart Association.

Second, poor health and safety habits also hit you in the pocketbook, which is another reason to adopt safe behaviors. Obese people pay $1,400 more per year for medical care than healthy people, a study published in Health Affairs found. The average hospital cost of a fall injury is $30,000, reported a study published in the Journal of Safety Research. The average cost of being hit by identity theft is $1,343, according to the Department of Justice.

The third reason to be more safety-conscious is insurance. High-risk lifestyles and behaviors can raise your insurance rates, while being more safety-conscious can lower them. For instance, insurers allow companies that have wellness programs the option of offering up to 30 percent discounts as incentives.

A fourth reason to be more safety-conscious is to gain peace of mind. Not only will you feel less stress, but you will be helping your physical and mental health, as well as your financial health. As much as eight percent of healthcare costs stem from stress, according to Harvard Business School professor Joel Goh.

Tips for Staying Safe

Health: Staying safety-conscious starts with following safer health habits. The American Heart Association recommends a healthy diet and exercise as the best prevention against cardiovascular disease. To maintain weight, use up at least as many calories as you take in; to lose weight, use up more calories than you consume. Eat a balanced diet from all the food groups, including fruits and vegetables, avoiding trans and saturated fat, and sweets. Engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity in each week. If you need to lower your blood pressure or cholesterol, aim for 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity three to four times a week. Schedule regular preventive screenings to intercept potential problems early.

Money: To keep your finances safe, avoid giving out your Social Security number, health care information, and other personal information when it’s not needed, recommends the U.S. government’s identity theft protection page. Pick up your mail promptly, and ask the post office to hold your mail if you’ll be away for a while. Review monthly credit statements and check your credit report once a year to watch for unauthorized activity. Use firewalls, anti-virus software, and secure connections when going online, and only use HTTPS-protected sites for online financial transactions.

Home: To keep your home safe, Allstate recommends you change your locks when moving into a new home, and make sure all doors have deadbolts. Take steps to make your home look occupied when you’re not home, such as leaving a car in the driveway or leaving a loud radio on. Install motion-activated lights and alarms, and consider timers or home automation to give the impression that someone is home. Set up video surveillance cameras to identify intruders. The best surveillance cameras from providers such as Lorex have high-definition resolution with night vision so that you can capture suspect details such as hair and eye color even in low-light conditions. Install fire and smoke alarms, and check the batteries regularly.

These are just some examples of the risks and countermeasures available to you. Sometimes, it helps to think like an auditor and try to look objectively at your habits, surroundings, and so forth - if you always operate out of habit, you can overlook the risks. What about you - do you have any tips to share on this topic?

Are Your AirPods Too Loose? Here Is A Great Fix

I have a love / hate relationship with my Apple Airpods. I love how they sound, I love the battery life, and I love how easy they are to pair and switch devices. I hate how they fit my ears. As someone with (apparently) large ear canals, they are very loose and fall out easily.

I didn't want to give up the convenience of my Airpods, so I started looking for a way to make them fit better. Luckily, I found a solution: Spigen TEKA RA200 Airpods Earhooks Cover for Apple Airpods. These are comfortable, silicone covers with a small "hook" that help keep the airpods secure in your ears.

Easy and Effective - And They Come With Two Sizes

These TEKA covers are easy to put on and very comfortable to wear for hours (the silicone is soft and pliable, while providing enough tension on your ears to keep them in place. They are also perfectly designed to fit on the Airpods without covering any of the sound ports or ear sensors, so they don't impair performance at all.

Each set of these TEKA covers includes two sizes (small and large) so you can choose the ones that fit your ears best (and you can give the ones you don't use to someone else, if you want). Pretty cool.

Only One Annoyance

The only issue I have with these is that you can't put the Airpods in their charging case while the TEKA covers are in place, since there is not enough room in the charging case when the covers are on. This isn't a design flaw in the covers - it's just the reality of how Apple designed the charging case.

What that means is that you need to remove the covers to charge the Airpods. That is not a big deal, since they can be removed and reinstalled very easily - however, you'll need to make sure you keep the covers in a safe place during the charging process so you don't lose them. I bought a spare pair of covers and keep them in a snack-sized Ziploc bag in my laptop bag, just to make sure I don't get stranded without the covers. If you have a better solution for keeping track of them, I'd love to hear it.

That aside, I unreservedly recommend the Spigen TEKA RA200 Airpods Earhooks Cover for Apple Airpods.

4 Ways to Stay Productive and Healthy While Working from Home

We've come a long way with technology through the years, so much so that it has given many people the flexibility to work from home. The ability to challenge the status quo of traditional office jobs lures many of us to regularly take advantage of this “perk.” At the same time, this work-from-home capability can negatively impact both productivity levels and our overall health. For example, the desire to wander off and mindlessly snack throughout the day, or the tendency to stay holed up in the house far into the evening hours can become a regular occurrence.

How do we make sure our home serves as both an escape from work and one that encourages increased productivity and an overall positive state of well-being? It’s all about finding the right balance between work and play. By incorporating the simple tips below, you’ll be on the right track for staying healthy and productive the next time you’re working from home. 

1. Get plenty of sleep 

We’ve all heard  a lot about the overall health benefits of good sleep. But did you know that according to the RAND research group, the U.S. loses $411 billion each year because of poor productivity due to lack of sleep? In fact, not only is our production impacted, but frequent sleep deprivation can affect our brains in more negative ways than you would think. 

For one, there is a strong connection between lack of sleep and depression. Studies have shown that people who have insomnia are more likely to be both depressed and anxious. Additionally, a good night’s sleep can help prevent the buildup of toxins attributed to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease - ostensibly, these toxins are flushed by the body when we get a decent amount of shut-eye. 

Set yourself up for success from both a work-from-home and a general well-being standpoint by getting between 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Better yet, incorporate the tech aids I've discussed in the past into your routine for an even better slumber. 

2. Invest in the right equipment

If you're anything like me, your computer may be your single most-used piece of equipment during the work day, so make sure it helps you achieve maximum productivity. Do your research and invest in a quality laptop that will allow you to get the job done, especially if you’re working as an entrepreneur or freelancer. Take into consideration key factors like cybersecurity and storage space, both of which you’ll find on laptops like HP's business laptops. It just so happens that 2016 was a record-breaking year for the number of data breaches, so it’s now more important than ever to ensure that your work is always protected. 

If you like to store your information and business files on your laptop, you'd better have backups. Purchase an external hard drive and rent cloud storage to ensure that you’ll have access to your files even if you do experience a tech emergency. Online storage options like Dropbox and Google Drive can provide the necessary backups for one-person businesses or small-business solutions. 

3. Wake up earlier

Some may find it difficult to fully wake up without hitting the snooze button a few times, but this new study may have you rolling out of bed as early as you can. According to Science Daily,  "morning people" tend to make smarter, healthier decisions when it comes to food. 

Not only do our biological clocks influence when we wake up, they also impact our metabolism. By rising early, participants in a recent research study ate a healthier breakfast and continued to make smarter food choices throughout the day unlike their night owl opposites. 

If the thought of waking up earlier is still a little daunting to you, actively attempt to go to bed earlier in the night to make the sound of your alarm just a bit less jarring. If you're an iPhone user, take advantage of iOS 10's "bedtime" feature that reminds you when it's time to go to bed so you get enough sleep before your target bedtime.

4. Make your workspace gadget-free

Our mobile devices and other tech gadgets have grown to become an extension of ourselves in the past decade, amplifying their potential to become never-ending distractions. Whether it’s a phone call from mom, a notification that someone liked your Instagram photo, or even the cheerful ring indicating you’ve just received a text, cell phones and other always-on tech can negatively impact our productivity. 

To solve the problem of being sidetracked by notifications, consider making your workspace a gadget-free area. The average person checks their phone around 110 times per day, so imagine how much time you’d have to get your work done if you didn’t waste it doing just that.

Many phones have "Do not disturb" features that can help by silencing alert and incoming messages. This is very useful, especially if you're about to dig into a project that requires deep concentration.

What about you - do you have any techniques of your own that help you stay healthy and productive while working from home? Share in the comments below! 

Keep on top of your email with Sanebox

For the last 4 of years, I've had a secret weapon to help me deal with email: SaneBox. SaneBox is a service that is phenomenal at dealing with email overwhelm, and it works with just about any email service you can throw at it. Here is a video with a brief overview.

Why is SaneBox useful?

From my perspective, SaneBox automates the handling of a lot of your email, allowing you to "clear the decks" by providing a concise inbox with only those emails which are a priority for you. Your other emails are still there, they just get filed in other folders so you can deal with them when you want to. Here are some of the default folders I like best:

@SaneLater	This folder contains items that are important to me, but not necessarily urgent. I deal with them when I choose to.
@SaneNews	This houses items that I've subscribed to and want to read during my "reading and research" blocks. They tend to be messages from mailing lists, blogs, and other items that are of intellectual or professional interest to me.
@SaneBulk	Things like email coupons, sale announcements, reward programs and so forth tend to end up here. I generally don't look at this unless I'm looking for something (like a coupon code for a particular store). I also create an email rule to purge this folder of anything older than 30 days.
@SaneNextWeek	By dropping emails in here, they go away until next week. Very handy.
@SaneArchive	Think of this as your "cold storage" folder - drop things in there and they will be searchable and retrievable, but still out of sight.
@SaneBlackHole	This is my favorite. When I don't want to hear from someone again (i.e. a persistent spammer, a phishing email, etc. I just move the message into this folder - I will not hear from that sender again. Currently, I have 4989 contacts in my "Black Hole" list. If you change your mind about someone (i.e. someone who was dead to you is now OK again), SaneBox makes it easy to find and un-blacklist them.

I've also created specialized folders like @SaneReceipts, which is where all of my email receipts are kept.

My favorite SaneBox features

View fullsize

Sample of my Digest - click to enlarge.

• The Daily Digest. This is not a feature I expected to use much, but it is indispensable. Every day, I get an email showing which emails have been sent to folders other than my inbox. The thing that makes it valuable is that I can "train" SaneBox very easily - without having to open an email at all! If I notice something show up in my @SaneLater box (the default folder for things SaneBox doesn't recognize), I simply use the Digest View to redefine where that message should go. Very easy.
  • I've attached an image of a digest (click the thumbnail to enlarge), so you get a sense of what it looks like - this one shows things in my @SaneBulk folder.
  • If I want to read an email "just this once" I click the "Inbox Once" button and it moves immediately (future emails will still go to the @SaneBulk folder).
  • I use this to "cherry pick" messages from individual folders, click to move them to the inbox, then click "Delete All" to nuke the remaining items, which magically disappear from my email accounts.
• Maintain a focused inbox. By nature of the way it works, SaneBox has helped me keep a solid, focused inbox. I get somewhere in the neighborhood of 350-500 emails per day across all of my main accounts. SaneBox filters this down to roughly 20-25 emails in my main inbox every day. That is huge.
• Easy training from any device. I don't need a specific "app" to be able to use SaneBox. To train it about which messages go to which folders, you simply move the messages to the right place. The service notices what you've done, and that kind of message goes to its new destination from that point forward.
• Easily defer emails without losing track of them. I mentioned the @SaneNextWeek folder earlier - that is very useful. Even more useful is the ability to selectively defer emails and have them show up in your inbox when you want to. By simply bcc'ing an address that SaneBox deciphers, you can tell it when you want to see the message again. Here are some examples:
  • bcc: friday.3pm@sanebox.com and the email will show up in your inbox again Friday at 3pm. 
  • bcc: 2weeks@sanebox.com and you'll see it again in 2 weeks
  • You can either use these kinds of special aliases to defer an incoming email until you want to pay attention to it, or you can use it to remind you to follow up on emails you've sent. This is a fantastic feature.

Risk-free trial, and a special offer for you

There are a lot more features, these are just my favorites. I have SaneBox managing 4 different email accounts for me, and couldn't imagine going back to the old way of doing things.

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If you're interested in trying it out, go to www.sanebox.com/curiosity for a special offer to Genuine Curiosity readers! Sign up for a free trial and you'll get a $15 credit towards a SaneBox subscription if you decide to keep using the service. 

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Note that I also get some free time on my subscription if you sign up. As I mentioned earlier, I've been using SaneBox for years, so when they approached me about reviewing their service and setting up this offer code for you, it was an easy "yes."

If you try it out, I would love to hear about your experiences with SaneBox.