Auto Makers Send Mixed Message on Distracted Driving
by admin on 25/10/11 at 1:45 am
A day does not go by that I do not see a car holding up traffic driving too slowly and erratically. Inevitably, I pass the car, look at the driver, and see that he or she is texting or talking on the cell phone. And, typically, not looking very carefully at the road. It also seems that the laws banning texting while driving have simply caused some drivers to hold the phone lower (out of view of the police) whilc they text and drive.
Federal authorities estimate that distracted driving caused 5,474 deaths in 2009, 995 of which were from using cell phones. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has performed extensive research that lead to the conclusion by NHTSA that there are three types of driver distractions: visual, manual and cognitive. That is, even when a motorist is looking straight ahead, the cognitive demand of a phone conversation may cause “inattention blindness,” or a failure to respond to visual cues because the mind is somewhere else.
The evidence includes a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that found that drivers are four times more likely to be in an automobile crash when they are talking on the phone, whether using a hand-held or hands-free device. Researchers at the University of Utah found that cellphone conversations slow driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol level at the legal limit of .08 percent. Moreover, in some fatal cellphone crashes, there is anecdotal evidence that drivers were simply talking — not dialing or groping for their phones.
Auto makers are reacting to this dangerous phenomenon in a contadictory way. On the one hand, Ford Motor Co. is sponsoring clinics at high schools to urge teens to heed traffic laws and avoid distractions behind the wheel. As part of its “Driving Skills for Life” program, Ford also recently awarded $25,000 to students who created the best music video about the hazards of distracted driving. Likewise, BMW launched ‘Don’t Text and Drive,’ a series of TV ads to dramatize the risks of distracted driving. And the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry trade group, is teaming with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in a similar campaign.
That’s all good. The problem is that at the same time these companies are telling drivers to pay attention to the road, they are trying to increase sales by appealing to the young consumers’ appetite for cutting-edge infotainment systems that encourage distracted driving.
Ford’s SYNC system, for example, enables drivers to use voice commands and touch screens to make and receive calls, listen to their text messages, and choose from a menu of replies. BMW’s ConnectedDrive provides calling, e-mail and text read-backs, and displays headlines of the messages on a screen.
General Motors advertised its infotainment technology with a Super Bowl ad of a young Chevy Cruze owner whose face lights up as he drives away and plays back the Facebook message: “Best first date ever…’’
Auto executives are counting heavily on edgy, high-tech features to boost sales, especially to younger buyers. David Mondragon, president of Ford Canada, put it bluntly: “The biggest turnoff to a twentysomething consumer is to put their life on hold when they sit in a car,” he said in a speech to the Canadian Marketing Assn. “And what does it mean to put their life on hold? To get disconnected when they get in the car, to have a system that will not allow you to sit there and e-mail, read your BlackBerry, talk on the phone. So you have to have a seamless transition from your home to your transportation device, to your workspace. Or to your play space.”
This marketing position flies in the face of Ford’s stated policy of urging young drivers to avoid distractions behind the wheel. Are the auto makers simply paying lip service to distracted driving in order to guard against tough criticism of their built-in infotainment systems? In the time it takes to look down at a text message, a child could run out into the road in front of your vehicle. Parents should lead by example and never use their cell phone in the car, particularly in front of their children. This may seem harsh at first, but children parrot what their parents do, so changing the habits of older drivers may be the most important step to creating safer young drivers.
