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Drivers commonly perform secondary tasks while behind the wheel to navigate or communicate with others, which has led to a significant increase in the number of injuries and fatalities attributed to distracted driving. Advances in wearable technology, particularly devices such as Google Glass, which feature voice control and head-up display (HUD) functionalities, raise questions about how these devices might impact driver attention when used in vehicles. New human factors/ergonomics research examines how these interface characteristics can have a deleterious effect on safety.
In their Human Factors article, "Driving While Interacting With Google Glass: Investigating the Combined Effect of Head-Up Display and Hands-Free Input on Driving Safety and Multitask Performance," authors Kathryn Tippey, Elayaraj Sivaraj, and Thomas Ferris observed the performance of 24 participants in a driving simulator. The participants engaged in four texting-while-driving tasks: baseline (driving only), and driving plus reading and responding to text messages via (a) a smartphone keyboard, (b) a smartphone voice-to text system, and (c) Google Glass' voice-to-text system using HUD.
The authors found that driving performance degraded regardless of secondary texting task type, but manual entry led to slower reaction times and significantly more eyes-off-road glances than voice-to-text input using both smartphones and Google Glass. Glass' HUD function required only a change in eye direction to read and respond to text messages, rather than the more disruptive change in head and body posture associated with smartphones. Participants also reported that Glass was easier to use and interfered less with driving than did the other devices tested.
IOW, wait until you're in a self-driving car before you mix texting and driving.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @09:28PM (6 children)
I don't text while driving, because it's obviously very stupid. That being said, sometimes I'm fully stopped at a traffic intersection, waiting for the green light, far back in the part of a long line of cars which won't start moving for 30 seconds after the light does turn green; in that case, GODDAMNIT, I'd like to be able to glance at my phone to see what those latest messages are ("The wait is too long; we're going to the other pub."). Yet, it's technically illegal to do that.
All of you morons make it impossible to have nice things; the rest of us have to labor under the politically correct fantasy that we, too, have shit for brains.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @09:48PM
the rest of us have to labor under the politically correct fantasy
And this is why we cannot be nice people! Idiot Republicans who think there is a thing called "political correctness". At least this one is intelligent enough to follow the law, even if not enough to understand it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @10:25PM
The laws are adapter to the most stupid people that the government has to handle. Use your brains to bypass their enforcement instead. Can't enforce what cannot be proven nor known.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:54AM (3 children)
My phone pairs with my car.
My car asks if I want it to read incoming text messages aloud. I answer with yes or no.
I can push a button on the steering wheel and ask to car to send a text message to anyone in my phone's phone book, and then recite the message aloud. Car reads it back, I say yes or no. Done. I never need look away from the road.
This problem has been solved for quite a while now, at least since 2012.
The options required to support this is just bluetooth.
The smarts can be cheaply built into the car, and probably is in most new cars already.
Voice reco is a thing.
Or it could be totally built into the phone without any car integration.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:46AM
s/t
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday April 15 2017, @07:47AM (1 child)
As TFS points out, the problem is the cognitive load, not just looking away from the road.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:13PM
As TFS points out, the problem is the cognitive load, not just looking away from the road.
Well, TFS has some cognitive dissonance. The conclusion from the quoted material:
manual entry led to slower reaction times and significantly more eyes-off-road glances than voice-to-text input using both smartphones and Google Glass. Glass' HUD function required only a change in eye direction to read and respond to text messages, rather than the more disruptive change in head and body posture associated with smartphones. Participants also reported that Glass was easier to use and interfered less with driving than did the other devices tested.
The conclusion TFS draws from that: ZOMG texting evil bad.
The conclusion I draw here: Hands-free eyes-free solution from GP would be even better than the google glass solution which won "best in show" as cited by TFS above. The cognitive load seems a distant secondary factor. "Looking away" is the big distraction, which GP's solution avoids completely.