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The infotainment technology that automakers are cramming into the dashboard of new vehicles is making drivers take their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel for dangerously long periods of time, an AAA study says.
The study released Thursday is the latest by University of Utah professor David Strayer, who has been examining the impact of infotainment systems on safety for AAA's Foundation for Traffic Safety since 2013. Past studies also identified problems, but Mr. Strayer said the "explosion of technology" has made things worse.
Automakers now include more infotainment options to allow drivers to use social media, email, and text. The technology is also becoming more complicated to use. Cars used to have a few buttons and knobs. Some vehicles now have as many as 50 buttons on the steering wheel and dashboard that are multi-functional. There are touch screens, voice commands, writing pads, heads-up displays on windshields and mirrors and 3-D computer-generated images.
"It's adding more and more layers of complexity and information at drivers' fingertips without often considering whether it's a good idea to put it at their fingertips," Strayer said.
Safe following distance would solve so much...
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday November 29 2017, @02:07AM (3 children)
4-5 years ago my car CD player died. I replaced it with an aftermarket unit that let me plug a USB drive into it. I love it. Except for the UI. I't's a maddenly difficult UI to figure out, even though on the surface it seems easy. Example? The USB stick has 12 albums and 16 CDs on it. Search for a CD. First off, all the multiple CD albums have a CD-1 and CD-2 under them. Which album is this particular CD-1 pointing at? No clue. Oh, you thought the Iron Maiden -> CD 1 would be the first Iron Maiden CD? Nope. Dumass, why would you ever think that.
Second, no manual. I downloaded the PDF to my laptop. I read the "search for whatever", seems easy enough. Sitting in the car at a light, do a search, find what I want, hit "yeppers, I want that", and I either get something completely different or I'm halfway through the CD I wanted to listen to. Why? Hellifino.
Contrast that to California law that says if I use my cellphone while driving I can expect a big dildo up my ass. Never mind if I'm using the navigation app stopped at a red light, nor that I'd otherwise be using a paper map doing 70 MPH down the freeway.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday November 29 2017, @02:23AM
It's like having to operate the UI on a Staples or FedEx print center do-it-yourself printer. Why not use the printer you got, you all ask? Because even plain black cartridges are 50 bucks and now that school's over it's well worth the trip and cost-savings when something actually has to be printed.
But regarding vehicles, yeah, road-atlasses for cross-country and Thomas-Guides for cities all the way, baby. The batteries don't run out on those. And knowing how to read a Thomas guide gets you mad punany.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday November 29 2017, @02:37AM
- top of her steering column, so she can stare at Google Maps as she drives.
Me? I don't need no stinking maps.
In the words of the immortal Michael J. Roberts [tads.org] I just "go there".
"Just going there" _never_ fails me.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday November 29 2017, @12:45PM
Try going in and relabelling AAAAALLLLLLLL of the classic Doctor Who episodes so it properly shows up in something like Plex.
All , what, 800ish episodes, 250ish GB, serials with sub-episodes.....Ugh!!
A bulk renamer only helps somewhat....the rest is manual labour.
But... Just go into the USB and rename cd1 and cd2 to meeting like Metallica_cd1 or......?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---