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The Future of Distracted Driving
By Erica Westly | July 24, 2009
Credit: Colin Purrington, via Flickr Creative Commons
Thanks to the New York Times, the dangers of driving while talking on a cell phone are once again in the news. As the report featured in the NYT article shows, it’s not just holding a phone in your hand that causes bad driving–talking to someone over a headset causes distracted driving, too.
Slate’s William Saletan says now that the evidence against using cell phones while driving is abundantly clear, we should be asking ourselves what we can do to stop it. Saletan proposes four possible solutions to the cell phone problem, but none of the ideas, which include carpooling, the old stand-by, “pulling to the side of the road,” and mass transit, seem like viable long-term options.
Here’s my take on it: Americans are tired of driving. With traffic getting more congested and daily commutes becoming longer–American drivers collectively spend over 3.7 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, according to a 2007 article in USA Today–driving in the U.S. has become a considerable hassle. It’s no wonder that people look to fill the time by texting and talking on the phone.
Revamping the country’s bus and train systems would be great, but that’s unlikely to happen any time soon. Plus, many Americans are reluctant to give up the privacy having their own cars provides. Instead, I think the future of transportation lies in creating (and marketing) cars that are smart enough to do most of the driving for us.
No, I’m not the first person to imagine self-driving cars, but the industry finally seems to be at a point where the idea of autonomous cars on the highway can be discussed in realistic terms. Take, for example, the ads for the 2010 Mercedes E-Class, which highlight sensors that prevent the driver from merging into other cars and brakes that activate automatically when the car is too close to another vehicle (or pedestrian, or tree–anything the driver could potentially crash into).
Yes, there are still plenty of Americans who claim to like driving–almost 70 percent, according to a recent Pew survey, although it’s worth noting that this was a significant decline from 1991, when the figure was closer to 80 percent. And yet in the same survey, 58 percent of drivers admitted to using a handheld phone while driving, and over 40 percent said they ate while driving.
Whether drivers engage in these distracting behaviors because they’re bored or because they’re so used to multitasking they can’t help themselves is unclear. What is clear, though, is that distracted driving is becoming a major problem that warrants practical, well thought out solutions.
Can everyone afford to buy a Mercedes E-Class? Certainly not, but I suspect the technology behind the E-Class’s automated safety features will become affordable enough to use in more moderately priced cars soon. Hopefully I don’t sound as ignorant and naive as Homer Simpson in that “Skinner’s Sense of Snow” episode where, upon finding out that Flanders’ car has cruise control, tells the car, “School, please,” and then promptly runs over a fire hydrant. If I do, don’t hesitate to let me know via comment.
Topics: Culture, Technology | 2 Comments »
July 24th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
What an interesting topic. Having lived in Los Angeles for several years, I totally agree that the number one reason people talk on the phone in the car is because sitting in traffic is BORING. And then when traffic picks up… well, you’re not going to leave your great conversation with your long lost friend, are you? Honestly, I’m glad New York has the no-cell-phone law, because there are times that I’m driving and I wish I could pass the time by calling someone. Although I think, according to the law, I could still make those calls if I had a hands free phone — which I’ve heard are not actually any better in terms of being distracting. It’s not the fact that one hand is off the wheel that makes cell phones so dangerous, but rather the fact that your mind is elsewhere, right?
Anyway. Sign me up for the self-driving car! It doesn’t have to be a Mercedes.
July 27th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Yeah, I think you’re right that the law doesn’t ban hands free phone conversations. I’m sure the general thinking was that phone conversations aren’t any more distracting than in person conversations. Then, research came out showing phone conversations are different. Tara Parker-Pope had an interesting blog post on the subject back in December:
http://tinyurl.com/5o8dlw