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The Screens in Cars Are Becoming a Problem:
You're driving and you're bored. Tired of staring at the road, your eyes drift toward the polished touchscreen to the right of your steering wheel—what the auto industry calls your "infotainment" system. First you scroll through its menus to select a pump-me-up playlist; then you use its mapping tool to reroute toward a nearby Starbucks.
Sounds like a typical driving experience these days. Sure, you temporarily looked away from the road while tapping through the infotainment system, but that's no big deal. Right?
Well, it could be. You might have been distracted for as long as 40 seconds while changing your destination, according to an analysis by the AAA Foundation—long enough to cover half a mile at 50 mph. As for choosing playlists, one study found that drivers selecting music with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto had slower reaction times than those who were high from smoking pot.
"Today's infotainment systems can be as distracting—if not more so—than personal electronic devices," says Jennifer Homendy, the newly confirmed chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. The federal government blames distraction for around 10 percent of the 38,680 annual traffic fatalities in the United States, but that's almost certainly an underestimate, since people aren't inclined to admit they were fiddling with a phone or a navigation system prior to a crash.
The problem isn't necessarily that infotainment displays are now a standard feature of all new vehicles; in theory, at least, they're preferable to drivers squinting to read a phone while operating a vehicle. But these systems are rapidly becoming glitzier, more complicated, and just plain bigger, with some resembling supersized tablets attached to your car console. Meanwhile, they're essentially unregulated.
Staff at the federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are aware of infotainment's risk of distraction, and they have advised carmakers to avoid egregiously dangerous designs and functionalities. But carmakers know that infotainment presents one of their best chances to stand out from competitors. "When you go to a dealership, it's almost a given that the car will have a five-star crash rating, and that it accelerates and brakes quickly," says Kelly Funkhouser, the head of connected and automated vehicles at Consumer Reports. "What makes a difference in the car you actually pick is the infotainment system." That becomes even more true in a world of electric vehicles, which lack much of the sound and feel that seem to confer a unique character on cars with internal-combustion engines. (MotorTrend's ranking of the model year's best "exhaust sounds" doesn't work for electric vehicles that emit no exhaust.)
Journal Reference:
David G. Kidd, Jonathan Dobres, Ian Reagan, et al. Considering visual-manual tasks performed during highway driving in the context of two different sets of guidelines for embedded in-vehicle electronic systems, Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2017.04.002)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Friday September 10 2021, @05:10AM (18 children)
Good thing they're becoming mandatory in new cars because we don't trust people to actually know how to drive, instead mandating backup cameras on everything. /s
And the little light that tells you when somebody is in your blind spot when you go to switch lanes. Because god forbid we just teach people to properly check their damn blind spots by turning their head.
Damn kids, get off my lawn!
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Subsentient on Friday September 10 2021, @05:21AM (13 children)
Just wait till you find out about self-driving cars.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday September 10 2021, @05:53AM (8 children)
Those are still mythical creatures.
A HUD-like windshield on the other side... I reckon that should have the car manufacturers salivating - that's when a crack in it will cost half the price of the car to replace and will lock the user to their service chain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday September 10 2021, @01:49PM
Not totally mythical, but they sure aren't general purpose vehicles. Yet.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday September 10 2021, @11:30PM (5 children)
My understanding is that the biggest hold back for a driver HUD is that a lot of places have local level laws about anything "interfering" with the drivers field of view, even if it is information relevant to driving. If it is on the windshield it is illegal. I've even heard that having your tassel from graduation, or anything else, hanging from your rear view mirror is illegal in some jurisdictions because it interferes with the drivers field of view. .
Until all the State level laws and regulations prohibiting driver HUDs gets cleaned up the tech is not going to see real deployment anytime soon. The basic HUD tech has been around since WW II.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Saturday September 11 2021, @05:51AM (4 children)
It's outside the states you probably have in mind, but dangling things from the rear view mirror is illegal in the UK. Can't pass the road-worthniess MOT test with something dangling there. Likewise, no obstructions on the windscreen (larger than a road tax disc), but specifically in the area swept by the wipers. Elsewhere is free game.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @01:02PM
It's also illegal in many states, but enforcement is generally lax. Most(?) states don't do inspections for tag renewal either.
(Score: 1) by BeaverCleaver on Saturday September 11 2021, @11:49PM (2 children)
This is a fantastic idea, I wish my country did this. You see way too many cars with distractions hanging from the mirror. Dreamcatchers, cartoon figures, crystals which scatter reflections all through the car...
It just seems like a way to habituate the driver to motion in their peripheral vision, so they learn to ignore those visual cues.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:14PM (1 child)
Even though our MOT rules require you to remove your fuzzy dice to get your pass certificate, there's nothing to stop you hanging them up again as you drive home.
(Likewise, the certificate doesn't guarantee that the car will stay roadworthy for another 365 days, just that it was on one particular date.)
(Score: 1) by BeaverCleaver on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:31PM
It does at least point out to the owner that it's unsafe, and they can't claim later to have been unaware that it was so.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @05:07AM
No, the HUDs are projected onto the windshield from the dashboard. I don't know why they aren't more popular. My dealership drops you off and picks you up when they're repairing your car. Half the time that 'taxi' car has a HUD. I asked one of the drivers if I could try it. It took me a minute to find the projected speed because it looked like the number was painted into the car in front of me. The HUD was too good for what I was expected.
Then again, I don't need to constantly see my speed so maybe that's why not a lot of people buy them.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Friday September 10 2021, @10:54AM (3 children)
As a programmer, I join my fellow kind in stating that there is no way in hell you get me anywhere near one of them until the 3rd or 4th generation of the software.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 10 2021, @01:44PM (1 child)
Seconded.
When it was time to help an older family member buy a new car in 2014, we specifically looked for one that had a simple one-line display (time, temp, miles-left-in-gas-tank). Most of the cars we looked at already had screens with backup cameras back then. I'm happy to have inherited that car recently, it still has low miles, and I plan to keep it for a good while.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday September 10 2021, @01:53PM
It's nice to have a backup camera. I feel that partly, because I have a kid that is shorter than the windows in a vehicle. Sure, kids shouldn't be where a car is backing out, but we also didn't used to have seat-belts in cars, either.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday September 10 2021, @01:51PM
As someone who can't drive...possibly the second generation for short local trips along routes with low speeds.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by crafoo on Friday September 10 2021, @06:35AM
We are breeding personal responsibility out of western civilization, intentionally. Knowing this, the only practical solution to a world of giant children and transportation is self driving vehicles that you rent rides from or lease. Ownership of course also requires some responsibility for maintenance care storage which no one will be capable of.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 10 2021, @06:24PM (1 child)
Turning your head is a sign that you don't know how to drive / have your mirrors setup poorly. Hint, while you are turned around looking at what is behind/to the side of you, you are still hurtling forward at 80mph / 130kph into that vehicle that has just stopped in front of you.
If you cannot quickly check your mirrors with your head forward and see everything you need while always monitoring the forward direction with your peripheral vision, you need to add/adjust mirrors.
And, touchscreens in cars are a stupid idea for similar reasons. There was a Tesla driver who crashed while trying to adjust his windshield wiper speed using the touch screen wiper controls?!!
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday September 10 2021, @11:09PM
Assuming the average person knows how to adjust their mirrors properly. And I wouldn't make that assumption, so probably safer to just glance over your shoulder.
If you're following somebody so closely that glancing over your shoulder for an instant causes you to get in an accident, you have other problems with how you drive.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @10:01AM
Backup cameras are great. Granted, it depends on the car you drive. I used to have an old Geo Metro hatchback that was like sitting in a bubble, you could see anything in any direction. Now I have a Dodge Ram that would be harder to manage without a backup camera. I can back directly under a trailer hitch, or all the way into a parking space without risking hitting the car on the opposite side. There are some cars where you can't see much of anything behind you without a camera.
Ideally, though, there wouldn't be any touchscreens at all in cars. It's ok for setting up stuff while sitting in your driveway, like Bluetooth pairing, the tire pressure monitor, and radio presets. But you should never have to touch the screen while driving. It's just not possible to do it without causing a major distraction.