There's good news and bad news in the debate around the role of electronics and distracted driving.
The good news is that if you've talked on the phone while driving (as most of us have), you weren't raising your risk of a crash, say experts. The bad news is that you tripled your crash risk when you flipped open a handheld phone and dialed it while driving. And if you texted, the risks nearly jumped off the scale.
"If you're looking for your phone, reaching for it, answering it, or dialing it -- that's when the risk increases," said Charlie Klauer, a research scientist for Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute (VTTI), in a Design News interview.
Smartphones call on users to look, read, and even type. Source: Car Connectivity Consortium
Klauer and others who have equipped cars with cameras and collected millions of miles of data on crashes and near-crashes say that the key to distraction is visual, not cognitive. In other words, talking and thinking aren't issues, but taking your eyes off the road is.
And that's where the real problem lies. The phones that are now making their way into the vehicle are visual, which is bad enough, but they're also manual. They call on users to look, read, and even type. And while the amount of cellphone gabbing in cars is said to be dropping, the amount of smartphone use is skyrocketing.
"We can have a debate about whether talking is dangerous, but we really need to focus on what we are using phones for today," Daniel V. McGehee, director of human factors and vehicle safety research at the University of Iowa's Public Policy Center, told us. "With smartphones, we are now getting into visual-manual issues. We're not only looking at the phone; we're manipulating it."
VTTI's study of cellphone use showed that there was virtually no statistical difference between those who talked on the phone and those who didn't. But for drivers who dialed, the risk of a crash tripled. And in a study of truck drivers who texted, the risks jumped by a factor of 23.
"Texting is in a league all it's own," Klauer says.
I would guess these new dashboards would be a major distraction problem. It's not something I've heard anything about -- regarding safety. Is this type of super sophisticated dashboard brand new?
In my opinion, Jack, the nested menus that you refer to are some of the worst offenders because they call on us to keep our eyes away from the road longer.
Rob: There's a breed of center consoles that has been evolving over the last few years that do a few things that dashboards generally didn't do seven or eight years ago. These new systems allow users to connect to devices that are brought in from outside (smartphones, iPods, GPS) and use them through the center console. They aren't new per se, but the distraction problem associated with them is growing more noticeable.
That makes the dash electronics would become a problem if drivers are messing with them while driving. I haven't heard much about this distraction. All of the focus seems to be on texting and talking on cellphones. Any distraction could be dangerous.
I believe we will hear more about this in the next year or so. The University of Iowa has a massive $60 million driving simulator in which they plan to test all kinds of driving distraction issues. I hope center consoles will be among their studies.
So consoles may be the new texting. I would think it is certainly worth looking into. Glad to hear that all aspects of driver distraction are included. Hope they include my favorite. Coming back from the store, I refilled a kid's tippy cup from a half gallon of milk while driving. I got pulled over for swerving. The cop let me off with the warning that I need to pull off the road when I refill the tippy cups.
Whenever distractions are discussed, kids are seldom mentioned. Truth be told, though, kids are probably the biggest possible distraction. Having them buckled into car seats definitely helps, but I always wonder how drivers managed in the 1950s, when kids weren't buckled and families were bigger. Can you imagine driving a car with six unbuckled kids in it? I'd consider jumping out the window.
Yes, kids are a major distraction, especially when you have a little one crying or older ones fighting. And you're right, that never gets mentioned. That's probably because it's an organic distraction and thus it can't be controlled in the same way that the use of cellphones and be restricted legally.
i would strongly disagree with the findings. Obviously dialling, texting, operating GPS units, or "lighting up a fag", are all extremely dangerous (and foolhardy) actions when you are supposed to be concentrating on your driving. But I have followed plenty of drivers who are merely carrying on a conversation with a phone to their ear,* and their driving is extremely erratic: speed variations, and "drifting" from one side of their lane to the other, seem to be the most common faults.
It beggars belief that our state of Victoria, (in Australia), has outlawed the use of hand-held phones in vehicles, yet it is ok to have GPS units**, car stereos with handheld remote controls, DVD players etc. (and cigarette lighters)
I'm not sure of the scientific reason, but there appears to be some sort of "proximity effect" when there are passengers in the car. They seem NOT to pose a major distraction for the driver.***
Having taken lessons in light aircraft, I found it quite comfortable talking to the Instructor while controlling the aircraft, and had no difficulty maintaining full concentration. It was a different matter when I had to make Radio calls. Maintaining control while trying to absorb instructions from a dis-embodied voice, and relaying information back to ground controllers required a much higher level of concentration.
If it were up to me, all electronic goods apart from the car stereo would be illegal in motor vehicles.
Chuck Solide
Melbourne, Australia
* Notwithstanding the fact that it is illegal !
** GPS units are merely contributing to the "Dumbing Down" of the population, are no substitute for the ability to "navigate", and have caused tragic deaths because they aren't always correct !
*** This does not apply to many ethnic groups (and individuals) who have the dangerous habit of turning to face their passengers to carry on their conversations, both orally and with hand gestures. (this is not racist comment, merely an observation, and I assume it has more to do with cultural influences than anything else)
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