Most people these days have a mobile phone. Only a few years ago the first thing people did when they got off a long flight was to light a cigarette. Today the first thing people do is turn their mobile phone back on. The thought of being “out of touch” with the rest of the world seems almost too much to accept for some. People feel as though they need to be contactable everywhere and in the car is no exception.
Using a mobile phone in your vehicle is accepted as a dangerous man oeuvre and indeed illegal when the engine is on. Using one without a hands free kit carries a fine and points on your license, which then leads to an increase in your insurance premiums. With today’s modern technology, the hands free kit that can be fitted to your car is often smaller than a packet of cigarettes. Most hands free kits can be quickly and easily fitted without damaging the interior of the car, or even leaving screw holes. Linking the hands free kit into the vehicles audio system will automatically cut out the music you are listening to and allow you to use the vehicles audio speakers to hear the caller. A small microphone, usually mounted on the trim of the door pillar allows you to converse normally whilst keeping both hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.
Most of the hands free kits that are available on the market today use Bluetooth technology to link the phone to the kit. A simple matter of pairing the phone and the kit together, the kit senses when the phone is in the car and automatically switches the kit on. The kits have the ability to accept a number of pairings to them, so not only can you register your phone to the kit, so can anyone else that uses the car. It is then a simple matter to select the phone that is being used in the car. One point to remember is that pairing the phone to the kit using the Bluetooth will reduce the battery life of the phone, so we would suggest that some form of in car charging be available to charge, or top up the phone whilst travelling. Many of the hands free kits offer a lead that connects the phone to the kit and charges the phone, whilst using the connection to integrate with the vehicles audio system.