CAP374A Regulation 37
Cap 374A reg 37 Visual display units (Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations; ROAD TRAFFIC ORDINANCE)
This is what you are allowed on an in-car display:
(a) information about the current state of the vehicle or its equipment;
(b) the current closed-circuit view of any part of the vehicle or the area surrounding the vehicle;
(c) information about the current location of the vehicle; or
(d) any other information which is only for the purpose of navigating the vehicle,
No clock. No date. No audio. No telephone. etc. All those have been permitted by Transport Department selectively enforcing (turning a blind eye). They have to do this because the legislation is ludicrously restrictive.
According to CAP374A Regulation 37, no modern vehicles should be permitted on the road as they all violate this regulation. Name me one car built in the past 20 years that doesn't violate the letter of that law.
My response to the 'it is distracting' opinion is that if the purpose of this legislation is to avoid distracting information appearing on in-car displays, then why is this not permitted while the vehicle parking brake is applied (or vehicle is not in motion). There is ample precedent. For example, the in-car mobile phone regulations (CAP374G regulation 42
Cap 374G reg 42 General driving rules (ROAD TRAFFIC (TRAFFIC CONTROL) REGULATIONS; ROAD TRAFFIC ORDINANCE)) is much less restrictive:
if a motor vehicle being driven by him is in motion-
(i) use a mobile telephone while holding it in his hand or between his head and shoulder;
(ii) use any other telecommunications equipment while holding it in his hand; or
(iii) use, while holding in his hand, any accessory to-
(A) a mobile telephone; or
(B) any other telecommunications equipment. (L.N. 192 of 2000)
So you cannot hold a mobile phone (or wedge it between your head and shoulder) while the vehicle is in motion. No restrictions on using a mobile phone in a docking cradle on the dashboard. Which is why this ludicrous setup is perfectly legal:
If it isn't legal, then have any Transport Department officials or Police Officers ever travelled in a Hong Kong taxi? I can't remember the last time I went in one that didn't have at least two or three phones strapped to the dashboard.
On another forum, Robert summarised it well:
The problem is legislation not keeping up with technology. 10 years ago, nearly all cell phones had physical number buttons which you had to press. Now everything is controlled using LCD screen. Similar argument is eg. air-conditioning or radios. The original intention of the legislation (presumably to prevent driver distraction by TV screens) is now no longer realistic/achievable since you can't prevent someone putting a cellphone with a screen in their car, as long as it is not part of the car's equipment. If you want to properly enforce the regulation, then HK will be thrown back to the stone age in terms of present vehicle equipment. Any harm that the regulation was intended to counter can be adequately addressed using other parts of the legislation preventing careless/dangerous driving. The solution lies with the Secretary for Transport who can repeal Reg 37 of the Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations.
Furthering this example, imagine if there was legislation years ago that said cellphones had to have physical buttons and could only run apps directly related to placing and receiving phone calls. Then when the iPhone was released, OFTA would ban the calendar app as illegal (along with more than 500,000 Apps since released). Now, imagine they didn't update the legislation for 5 or 10 years. That is CAP374A regulation 37.
