When Cars Become So Cool It Makes Them Dangerous #Science #Technology

Researchers measured distraction responses of drivers.

Credit: Image courtesy of University of Utah


Many of the infotainment features in most 2017 vehicles are so distracting they should not be enabled while a vehicle is in motion, according to a new study by University of Utah researchers.

The study, led by psychology professor David L. Strayer, found In-Vehicle Information Systems take drivers' attention off the road for too long to be safe.

Science Daily:  Caution ahead: The growing challenge for drivers' attention

The cellphone was the first clear sign of the Grand Gadget Overwhelm represented by all of these incredibly cool devices.  The concern now extends to all the other devices and so it should although finding a way to ameliorate the problem will be difficult.  Ultimately this will resolve with self-driving cars which really don't need your attention since then you can bring all the toys you like.


The numbers make the problem clear:

The researchers found drivers using features such as voice-based and touch-screen technology took their hands, eyes and mind off the road for more than 24 seconds to complete tasks.

Previous research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that the risk of a crash doubles when a driver takes his or her eyes off the road for two seconds.

- SD


Even up to about four years ago, I had an old Sprinter van and it was loaded with distractive goodies of this nature.  I installed all of them or had them installed while today the manufacturer does it but still the effect is the same with the Grand Gadget Overwhelm.  All of the gadgets were vital to me for the best touring so I needed the iPhone closest to the steering wheel, the iPad next to that, and a Garmin GPS a little higher.  Overhead was a large monitor for a rearview camera and even that needed some fiddlin' sometimes.

The system was incredibly clever but it damn sure wasn't safer than traveling without it.

In today's cars, it's common to find DVD players and who knows what else for enormous distractive influence.


There's not much of an idea of how to solve this, mates.  You could make a pile of laws but they don't seem to have had much of an effect on the way people use cellphones so they would probably be nearly unenforceable.  It seems more you need an epiphany in the people in which people realize it is not such a smart thing to use these devices.

Using gory pictures of kids in crashed-up cars due to inattentive driving doesn't have much effect so maybe a more imaginative approach is needed.  Perhaps we can have Ward and June Cleaver tootling around the countryside when June says, "You know, Ward, I sure don't miss all those odd things on the dashboard."

Ward calmly replies as he always calmly does and says, "I don't miss them either, June.  They were constantly demanding I do something with them and who needs that?"

June says only, "Not me."