In 1992 I took a graduate level mind cognition course in which the professor demonstrated unequivocally the human brain's inability to drive and carry on a conversation without significant distraction.It should be noted, this was at the advent of cellular communication and he predicted that we as a world faced grave consequences when driving and cell phone use became widespread. Studies on this issue have existed for the past 15 years but it has never been addressed. The additional concentration of texting causes even more problems than a conversation just as the guy who used to read a book or newspaper cruising in the next lane was an accident waiting to happen.The reality is that many more than 30K lives were lost last year due to distracted driving.Cell phone use and additional entertainment options within vehicles are only exacerbating a problem that has existed since motorized transportation existed.
Having said that, the genie is out of the bottle and I am unsure of how it ever gets back.Bluetooth helps but hands free is not the problem.The brain has its limits in these situations and any conversation is a problem.
I agree with Ratsky, in that automobile drivers need to be trained and licensed better for what they are driving. In the very early days of cars there was less of a need for such training, but that was well before radios were ever installed. I remember a fellow high school student installing a 45 record changer and payer in his new 58 Impala and another classmate who installed an FM tuner in the trunk of his 51 Ford Coupe. I would imagine that many of us might come up with similar stories as what Ratsky shared.
It seems that any training and licensing from the beginning was primarily for one's ability to control a car under basic simple conditions on surface streets with little or no traffic. The only deviation was to include some rules of the road in their training and license test. That has not changed much over the decades of major technology changes, and might I venture to say over the past hundred years? Today, it is disappointing that few people follow those rules.
This should open that proverbial can of worms. Should drivers only be allowed to operate the available peripheral devices that they have been licensed for using? Who would decide on the level of training and testing, and for what devices? In general, the technology of today might warrant a mandatory training schedule for anyone operating vehicles on the public roads today, just as there are for various licenses for race car drivers. After all, many of the drivers on public roads of today are operating their vehicles in a similar manner.
Aside from the known typing issues of my last: caps were not held and words were run together. A Microsoft issue: resolved.
Drivers need to understand the purpose of their trip, and Plan, Organize, Staff, Direct, and Control their travel plans and driving tasks before doing so. Does this sound familiar (it should be to cognizant individuals)? It is true that pans often change and must be flexible, and therefore should have alternatives to considered, before the trip.
There are many other situations where by the driver can be distracted from the tasks at hand: DRIVING in a safe and prudent manner. If drivers are in a hurry, then they should start their processes earlier (wake up, hygiene concerns, diet, transporting passengers, picking up items, etc.), well before their taking control of a moving vehicle. Consider other types of vehicles that might be relevant: air, land, sea, mass transit, Earth movement, drilling for tunnels, gas & oil, military operations, laying subsea cables, pipes, offshore drilling platforms, etc.. All of these tasks require undivided attention and concentration.
It is not appropriate in this arena to reference to people as idiots or the like. Many of the people that you are apparently referring to, do not consider the consequences of their actions or the safety of others who may be riding with them or driving near them. However, there are times when it would be unsafe impossible or unable to stop or pull over in a safe manner, but need to address an incoming call. That is not to say the driver should indulge in much of a conversation, but should inform the caller that they are aware of the call, driving at the moment, and will return the call at the next opportunity. Unless it is an immediate emergency, they must hang up or otherwise disconnect the call.
While it may help to provide some level of safety to anyone in a situation near the user of such a device, I do not think it would be possible to control the usage. I do not believe that it is necessary for governmental intervention, but do believe that there should be stiff penalties for utilizing a distracting device while operating a moving vehicle that could otherwise endanger the lives of others. If it were necessary, then the government should have stepped in long ago when radios were first installed in vehicles. Radios and other entertainment devices are no different and the use of cell phone and GPS devices should be treated with little difference. Each device has the ability to distract the driver (controller) and have caused serious situations and accidents.
Should the driver be isolated from the rest of the passengers while driving? Would conversations or other distracting events within the vehicle be necessarily isolated from the driver? Who or what would serve as the navigator for the driver? Should the driver be tested on their knowledge of locations or be a professional? Given that you knew everything, where would you draw the lines?
It is not appropriate in this arena to reference to people as idiots or the like. Many of the people that you are apparently referring to, do not consider the consequences of their actions or the safety of others who may be riding with them or driving near them. However, there are times when it would be unsafe impossible or unable to stop or pull over in a safe manner, but need to address an incoming call. That is not to say the driver should indulge in much of a conversation, but should inform the caller that they are aware of the call, driving at the moment, and will return the call at the next opportunity. Unless it is an immediate emergency, they must hang up or otherwise disconnect the call.
While it may help to provide some level of safety to anyone in a situation near the user of such a device, I do not think it would be possible to control the usage. I do not believe that it is necessary for governmental intervention, but do believe that there should be stiff penalties for utilizing a distracting device while operating a moving vehicle that could otherwise endanger the lives of others. If it were necessary, then the government should have stepped in long ago when radios were first installed in vehicles. Radios and other entertainment devices are no different and the use of cell phone and GPS devices should be treated with little difference. Each device has the ability to distract the driver (controller) and have caused serious situations and accidents.
Should the driver be isolated from the rest of the passengers while driving? Would conversations or other distracting events within the vehicle be necessarily isolated from the driver? Who or what would serve as the navigator for the driver? Should the driver be tested on their knowledge of locations or be a professional? Given that you knew everything, where would you draw the lines?
The Bluetooth solution is the obvious answer and most likely to succeed. In Chicago, five suburbs recently passed Bluetooth laws, and two more are pending.
Rob: Here's a look at some statistics that are consistent with yours. A NHTSA survey says 5% report being willing to make calls on all driving trips, 10% on most driving trips, and 26% on some driving trips. The majority of respondents (66%) answer and drive, 12% answer and call back, 9% answer and pull over, 3% say they pull over and then answer.
Let's face it-- people are NOT going to stop using cellphones in their cars. I can't count the number of idiots (sorry, drivers) who have their hands cupped against one ear, meaning their talking on their phone while driving without using Bluetooth. That's a dangerous distraction, whereas talking via Bluetooth is a safer, albeit still somewhat distracted, way of doing it. Therefore, we should recognize reality and make the real-world use case as safe as possible. Answer: Mandate that all cars include bluetooth support so that drivers can talk hands free. I know, it's another "government mandate," but there's so much electronic crap in cars anyway, I can't see how this would add cost. These things are part of the ecosystem now anyway.
I'm very surprised that nobody yet has brought up the advantages of the new natural-language voice-recognition HMIs! Many of the new systems require only a tap on the voice-recog trigger button (many cars have them on the steering wheel); from there on, it's all done by voice. That wouldn't help much with teens, though. It's pretty well established they'd rather thumb/type than talk.
You're right, Beth, the onus is on the automakers, but I doubt they will do anything about it as long as there's a big market for electronics. On the flip side, municipalities that have tried to legislate it and some are making matters worse. In Lake Forest, IL, for example, it's been reported that the city council is looking at two ordinances -- one aimed at cellphone use and another aimed at distracted driving. According to the Chicago Tribune, the distraction ordinance could address adjusting the radio or eating, among other things.
Ratsky, you raise some good points about young drivers. The experts I've spoken to (after filing this article) say that there's a big difference between teens and adults, some of whom have been driving for many years. Cognitively, a cell phone -- even one with a Bluetooth headset -- can be distraction for teens. In other words, the conversation itself is a distraction for them, let alone the process of dialing. Teens, it seems, tend to want to look at their passengers when they talk to them, whereas longtime drivers have generally cultivated the habit of looking straight ahead while they talk.
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