'Do Not Disturb While Driving' iPhone iOS 11 Feature to Block Notifications While Driving

By Sheanne Aguila, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, June 06, 2017

Apple will soon introduce a new iPhone feature that helps its users become safer drivers.

iPhone users will no longer have to worry about that annoying and dangerous urge to look at their phones while driving. Apple is set to release the "Do Not Disturb While Driving" feature — a part of the iOS 11 update which will be available this coming fall.

According to reports, the new mode works whenever the handset is connected to a car via cable or Bluetooth. If the car is moving, the device will block any kind of notification from social media and even text messages.

If the user receives a text while driving, the iPhone automatically responds with a message informing them that the user is driving and cannot reply. Text messages will not pop up by defult, but senders still have the option of responding with "urgent" in case the user really needs to see the message.

Once they are no longer driving, users have the option of overriding the "Do Not Disturb While Driving" feature by turning on the screen with the power button and clicking the "I'm not driving" option on the screen. Enabling the mode is also pretty straightforward since Apple will automatically prompt individuals to use the feature after taking their first drive with ther iOS 11 device.

It's worth noting that Apple is unveiling the feature six months after the company was hit with a lawsuit for not having a feature like it before. A fatal crash was previously blamed on a teenage driver using the iPhone FaceTime app.

Apple's senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi announced the upcoming feature during this year's Worldwide Developers Conference in California.

"IIt's all about keeping your eyes on the road," he said. "When you are driving you don't need to be responding to these kind of messages. We think this is going to be a real important step in safety in the car."