(September 22, 2010) On Tuesday  U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood hosted a summit on distracted driving, presumably in an attempt to spur further legislation on the issue. Edmunds.com hopes to broaden the discussion despite receiving no response to a letter sent to Secretary LaHood last week. Click here to read the letter.

"Unfortunately, the solution to the problem of distracted drivers can't be boiled down to the automotive equivalent of 'just say no.' There's more to driver distraction than just electronics, and many dangerous driver behaviors don't involve technology at all — and at this point, asking drivers to go on a tech-starvation diet is probably a losing battle," said Edmunds.com Features Editor Carroll Lachnit.

"Most automakers already have mature systems in place to enable hands-free phoning and manipulation of media players, with Ford Motor Company's 'Sync' system being perhaps the best-branded solution," noted Edmunds' AutoObserver.com Senior Editor Bill Visnic.

"'Distracted driving' is a nice blameless way to describe a problem that really should be termed 'irresponsible driving,'" commented Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl in his blog posting on the subject.

"Regulation may be necessary, but not without a full vetting of alternatives," stated Anwyl. "To a regulator, regulations are always the best solutions, but in truth, they are burdensome and intrusive on personal freedoms and should require a high bar of evaluation before being adopted."