NOVI, Michigan — Distracted driving kills more than 3,000 people each year in the United States, a figure that represents about 10 percent of all traffic fatalities. How many of those people die because they were fiddling with their phones or navigating their navigation systems isn't clear, but no matter. The feds say they've got "the ultimate solution" for curbing the use of mobile devices while we're mobile.

Nathaniel Beuse, associate administrator for vehicle safety research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says government regulation coupled with standards set by automakers and the electronics industry could reduce fatalities. He says we need "a technological solution, some sort of innovation" in which the device or the car would recognize when the driver is using a mobile device and deactivate it.

"This would be the ultimate solution," he says.

Federal regulators want to make it impossible for you to send a text, update Facebook or surf Instagram while driving, a campaign that could have as big an impact on mobile phone manufacturers as automakers. This spring, the NHTSA and its parents at the Department of Transportation laid out – in a 281-page report (.pdf) – several guidelines for accomplishing this.

As we noted at the time, a key objective is limiting the amount of time a driver takes his eyes off the road or hands off the wheel, with a maximum of two seconds for each input and total of 12 seconds to complete a task. NHTSA wants automakers to make it impossible to enter text for messaging and internet browsing while the car is in motion, disable any kind of video functionality and prevent text-based information such as social media content or text messages from being displayed.

Beuse, speaking at the Telematics Detroit 2013 conference, says two paths could be taken to this destination. The first is less than feasible because it would require drivers to physically connect their smartphones or mobile devices to the vehicle's embedded system, disabling functionality while the car is in motion. You can see the problem with that idea.

"[We would need] 100 percent compliance to get drivers to pair their phones," Beuse said. If such integration isn't user-friendly and dead simple, "[drivers] will be right back to using their handhelds."

That makes the second idea far more viable: a proximity sensor, in the vehicle or the device, that recognizes when the driver is using the device and requires them to pass it off to a passenger. Think of a seatbelt chime, but more annoying.

This isn't the first time NHTSA and the DOT have required companies to eliminate certain distracting features while driving. The most obvious example has been disabling video playback while the car is in motion. But Beuse admits the NHTSA must "figure out how to monitor compliance." And this won't just extend to automakers, but the automotive aftermarket that produces in-dash stereos with increasingly complex functionalities.

NHTSA and the DOT, led by outgoing honcho Ray LaHood, have made distracted driving a signature cause during the past four years. Although distracted driving is indeed a problem – the phenomenon accounted for 3,331 fatalities in 2011, up from 3,092 the year before – it's hard to know just how many crashes and deaths resulted from the use of mobile devices behind the wheel.

"If you look at crash data, there are a number of crashes that are due to distracted driving," Beuse says, but "our data is not refined enough to pinpoint [the exact cause of those] crashes."

What's going to be more difficult is to get what NHTSA wants: 100 percent compliance from automakers, consumer electronics companies, aftermarket manufacturers and the public.

"We can't force consumers to pair their device to the vehicle," Beuse says. "We need a technological solution."