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"Supertaskers" Can Safely Use Mobile Phones While Driving
nk497 writes "While most of us are dangerous when texting, chatting on a phone or being otherwise distracted while driving, one in 40 are actually just fine with such distractions. In a small study, such 'supertaskers' were just as good at driving when carrying on a conversation over a hands-free phone as they were when fully focused. That said, the researchers warned that most people are much worse at driving while chatting and shouldn't do it, adding: 'Given the number of individuals who routinely talk on the phone while driving, one would have hoped that there would be a greater percentage of supertaskers.'"
That 1 in 40 aside, reader crimeandpunishment writes "The US Transportation Department is calling for a permanent ban on texting while driving, for interstate truck and bus drivers. An interim ban has been in place since January. The government says it is doing everything it can to make roads safer by reducing the threat of distracted drivers."
Well, this sounds like a self-correcting problem on a long enough time scale. Hope I'm one of the 40!
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I'm just fine with the added distractions. In fact, while driving, I usually #*&&&%>...
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I can see now a lot of people claiming to be supertaskers.
I hope those news don't make it to the general public;
This gives many ignorant people justification to feel like they are really one of those 1 in 40. Just don't fucking do it, whether you think you are good at it or not. I'm sure I could do it, but I try not to even answer the phone when I'm on the road.
There may only be 1 supertasker in 40 for now, but that proportion can only increase if the non-supertaskers carry on trying to multitask while operating heavy vehicles!
there is no god but truth, and reality is its prophet
The sample size was really small in this - 200. So 5 people out of 200 showed no deterioration in driving skill with improved memory performance.
I'd love to see how their driving metrics compared to everyone else though. Is it that the keep driving well while on the phone, or are they just crap drivers who don't concentrate on the road even when they're not on the phone?
think they are awesome multitaskers. They are wrong.
The summary just says that the supertaskers were just as good at driving when distracted as when fully focused. Maybe they suck at driving so much that adding a cell phone can't make them any worse.
Cell phones are distracting. So are crying children in the back seat. So are radios. It's also distracting for someone to eat while they are driving. Yet lawmakers are in a huff about banning cell phone use only while driving. Our city just passed an ordinance banning holding a cellphone while driving yet it's still perfectly legal to eat, smoke, and yell at screaming children while driving (and all at the same time!). Why not take a more sensible approach and teach people how to drive responsibly while talking on a cell phone? By outlawing it, we only make the problem worse. Responsible texting might mean only doing it once you are stopped at a 3 minute stoplight. The 1 in 40 is interesting but I'd like to see a study that compares other distractions with cell phones.
I wonder how many of those had a foreign driver's license.
This is a case of 39 out of 40 bad apples ruining it for the whole bunch by killing people. Supertasker or no, texting while driving should be illegal.
I think the current poll is informative here. While I suspect that the average IQ of a slashdot reader is indeed above average, The percentage of "super genius" is probably exaggerated.
The lesson is that while 1/40th of the population falls under the "supertasker" category, the number that claim to be is much, much higher. My estimate would be 1/4th or more perceive themselves that way. And that's a dangerous perception to have.
Let's face it: nobody is willing to say "no phone use at all" while driving. So we have an entirely ineffective compromise which requires hands-free devices. This is a great way to pretend to do something while not actually doing any of it.
However, far worse, I think there is another factor here: If avoid all distractions while driving on a long trip one of two things will get you: highway hypnosis (a real form of hypnosis sometimes including post-hypnotic amnesia) or your brain will make up its own distractions. Really, has anyone here not had the experience of driving somewhere, getting there, and realizing that there is a chunk of time missing in your memory for part of the drive? While it is profoundly stupid to talk on the phone while navigating through a school zone crowded with students just released from school and their parents picking them up, I am not sure one can make a case that it is a net safety hazard to use a cell phone (hands-free or otherwise) driving down he freeway in the middle of nowhere. In fact, insofar as it prevents more dangerous hypnotic states from developing, it might be a net safety win to talk on the phone.
A much better approach would be to ban all use of cell phones while driving through residential and school zones, ban most cell use while elsewhere within city limits, and allow driving and talking on the phone on open roads in the country. That's not a popular view tough.
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And I occaisonally text while driving. Not usually phone calls, which seems a little ridiculous, I know.
I don't know if I'd call "Not being a dumb ass" as super-tasking.
It basically works like this:
#1 Keep your eyes where they are supposed to be. If you are in rush hour traffic, you've got a car in front of you. Keep your eyes on that car. Pull up the phone, hold it over your steering wheel so you can see both the phone and the car in front of you.
#2, don't be talking, don't be texting, don't be looking at anything else but where you need to be when Either Changing lanes, Turning, or reversing.
#3 I hope you've memorized your T9 or have good 1 handed touch-phone capabilites, because those are nice abilities to have. In fact, with a small enough flip phone, you can just flip it open over the steering wheel to read the message, while driving. Then, left hand on the wheel, bring the right hand with the phone down by your lap. You press the reply button, start texting your T9 you have memorized, like typing at a keyboad without looking at the keys. Press send. Close the phone, put it on the seat next to you.
Oh yeah, and I drive a standard, to add to the mix, but thats as simple as knowing when you can stay in a gear for while, and not texting when you'll need to shift.
Problem is this study will be shown to be proof worldwide when there are big differences between the US and other countries when it comes to driving and cars.
In the UK we're mostly manual transmission drivers. An auto is easier to drive when holding a phone, but try holding a phone, steering and changing gear at the same time!!
Great. Now every dipshit who thinks he is one of the 1 in 40 supposed "supertaskers" will feel he is entitled to fully express his inner idiot. Great. I'll bet that a few months or years from now this will be shown to actually be the crock of shit it sounds like.
EOM
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I saw this teenager once shooting hoops while talking on his cell phone. For about five minutes he just kept at it, didn't miss a shot, didn't pause talking while doing a jumpshot or anything. Someone else started using the same hoop, no sweat, didn't even have to wait just perfectly synchronized with the other kid.
Damn.
1 in 40. Not me.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
You wanna see super taskers, look at an ambulance that's driving with it's lights and sirens on. We would clear an intersection, zip around traffic, talk on the radio, plug in addresses into GPS, and eat our lunch all at the same time, while trying to provide a smooth ride for the people in back doing CPR and handling sharp pointy objects.
98% of people will believe they're in the 2% who can "supertask".
I think it is safe to say I am a supertasker. I have over 100 APM in StarCraft 2 and am ranked 3rd in Platinum ladder. I have 4 monitors connected to my PC and use them all at the same time running many programs, viewing many pages etc. I still try to avoid phoning while driving though.
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So people with ADHD are just as safe driving either while talking or not while talking on their cellphones? Couldn't this be interpreted as "they suck so badly at driving that talking on the phone can't possibly make them any worse"?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
1 in 40 people might be able to drive drunk safely. But changing the DWI laws would be just silly.
I can only do 1/2 things at the same time
if I try and drive, I stop breathing
if I try and talk on a cell phone, I pee myself
So if you see some dead guy with an iPhone in a Honda accord crashed into a fence...thats me!
at least posting on Slashdot is simple.
I've never had a problem talking on the phone and driving. However, I have had several close calls when talking to a passenger in my car! I cannot text and drive, that's suicide ...
I would say that I'm one of the supertaskers because I'm ADHD. I can focus on several things at once better then one thing at a time sometimes. In fact the only people that I have met that can drive safely and talk on the cell phone at the same time are normally ADHD.
Texting on the phone - no way, eyes not on road
Talking on the phone - talking is secondary to driving, I'd talk to passengers in the car just the same as a phone conversation. They are looking to me to deliver them safely to their destination, which is my #1 priority
What's the difference between texting and reading a book/newspaper/magazine?
A whole lot different than talking on a phone..... With out without a hands free!
Rick B.
The story title seems to cast a rather broad net with its "`Supertaskers` Can Safely Use Mobile Phones While Driving"... there's a huge difference between...
One just requires you to listen and yap - still not as good paying attention to your driving 100%, but people listen to (talk) radio and whatnot and sing along with songs or carry on conversations with others in the car (yes, they can help pay attention to the road), etc.
The other typically requires you to actually look away from the road and to a little screen/keyboard so you know what you're typing. Even if you've become highly proficient at texting using e.g. T9 on a standard phone pad (much easier than a full keyboard in this case) and don't have to look, you've still got one hand focused on a particular task not related to driving for an extended amount of time.
So even these 'supertaskers' aside, the study conclusion referred to doesn't seem to say anything about things like texting or checking your facebook or playing games and all those other things one can use a mobile phone for these days; just hands-free conversation.
As a contractor for the past 10 years, I often found myself in situations where I am driving and there is a phone call and there is an emergency or there is a meeting and I have to be there, whatever, I always hate those, because I know it is not a good idea to drive and be on the phone where I actually have to solve something, pay attention, participate. Have to do it anyway, so I don't know if these 'super-taskers' have a natural ability or they just do what I have to do and increase the attention that I pay to the road even more than I normally do, because I am scared of getting into an accident during the call. So for real, I pay more attention to the road and driving and what is around me while on the phone, then when I am not distracted. It's just a necessary precaution, otherwise you can't do it, you'll crash into something. I also learned to be able to stop caring about the phone, no matter what's happening there in an instant when necessary, that's important because whatever you do, there is always a chance someone will be changing lanes right into you, maybe they are also on a call and are not scared.
You can't handle the truth.
If they're already doing multiple things in their head, swapping one of those tasks with a mobile call wouldn't really add any further distractions.
I'd suspect that the short term memory (or similar) of these individuals is better than average. Most people can remember 7 things at once, hence why phone numbers are that length. Some people can only remember 5, others 9. Depending on the type of conversation, I could imagine one that only required remembering two things to keep up with it. If you can normally remember 9 things, use 2 "slots" for a phone conversation would leave 7 slots for other tasks. Driving probably only takes ~4-5 so the reduced capacity isn't apparent.
OTOH, I'd imagine that you could determine a difference by increasing the difficulty of the task at hand. So I'd say even "supertaskers" would still have avoidable accidents at a higher rate then they normally would. Of course, their accident rate would still be within normal limits.
Yep. Ever hear someone claim they "have a photographic memory," a neato pop-psych ability popularized in the '70s? The contemporary will now be "I'm a supertasker!!"
As a bicyclist, I am ready to go vigilante on some of the drivers I see on the road regularly. Just this morning, as I was about to turn left on my way to work, a woman barreling over a hill in a 30MPH zone while going at least 40MPH was holding up an iPhone directly in the center of her field of vision, and I think she may have actually been texting on it. I sure hope that not only was she one of these so-called "supertaskers," but that she could also react well to things she happens to see in her peripheral vision. So long as you do not plow into me from behind, I can usually take care of myself (although I have seen a motorist stray all the way into the bike lane and almost off the road once), but what especially irked me was the fact that she had just passed right by an elementary school.
I consider myself to be capable of multitasking fairly well. I do not know whether I am a "supertasker," but I have seen enough crazy things on the road in my lifetime that I always make certain that my attention is fully devoted to the road whenever I am behind the wheel. Whatever time I think I may be saving by refusing to make phone calls or read texts while driving is not worth the risk of ruining someone else's life.
1 in 40? I wonder if that is the same proportion of people who can be fighter pilots. In a past life I was a Weapons Director in the Air Force - fancy title for someone who looks at a radar screen and says "the bad guys are over there!" I worked with fighter pilots (primarily the F-15 and F-16), and the thing is, no one task they do is all that complicated. The catch is that you have to do several at the same time:
1) Fly the plane
2) Operate the radar
3) Search visually outside the cockpit
4) Talk/listen to your wingman
5) Talk/listen to radar controllers (that was me)
Only when you have mastered all these can you then:
6) Develop a mental picture of what is going on - "Situational Awareness" (SA)
7) Decide on the proper tactics and execute them, and
8) Get yourself into position and employ the weapons systems
Experienced pilots are obviously masters of all 8. An inexperienced pilot can get bogged down on step 2, and never hear you repeatedly telling him that the bandit is rolling in on his six-o-clock.
Of course, they get better, and I wonder if proper training could turn more people into 'supertaskers'. Then again, we don't spend hundreds of hours and millions of dollars training the average driver.
http://surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/sterling_spencer_gets_shacked_on_his_cell_phone/
This doesn't apply to the police of course. They still want to be able to use their laptops while they drive ... even though they are eight times more likely to have an accident than the rest of us. Most of these accidents involve other people. So, everyone would be safer if the police pulled over and parked before using the laptop.
I'm all for a ban on texting and driving but I sure would like to see it apply to everybody.
I would be interested to see the full text of the "study". Aside from complete bias of the entire realm of psychology, what about the simple things involved, like having to take your hands off the wheel to operate another device - or worse - your eyes off the road to read the text messages. No amount of "supertasking" can compensate for this, in situations which require split-second reaction times. The "reaction times" aren't merely "mental" - but involve seeing something happen, having your brain process it, and physically reacting to the situation. Having ones eyes off the roads for a fraction of a second could mean not even observing a situation happenging before it's too late.
some of these are seriously hilarious...like "Darwin Award" hilarious... http://hubpages.com/hub/Ten-Things-Not-to-Do-While-Driving
The problem is that most people can't "supertask." Taking away one distraction (to some) accomplishes nothing. People can still talk while they drive, change the song on their iPod, eat lunch, shave their bikini area, etc.
'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' - Mao Tse-tung
is not the texting per se, but the lack of intelligence of the driver. Washington state has passed a law prohibiting talking on your cell phone without a hands-free device for the same reason.
I know several people who can drive and talk on or text with their phone without a problem. The key is, they know better than to do it in heavy traffic that is moving more than 10 miles/20 km per hour.
The same problem occurs with individuals carrying on conversations with their passengers, reading the newspaper, changing their radio, etc, etc, etc. It comes down to common sense. Which is, unfortunately, less and less common these days.
People just need a boogie man to blame for the problems and today's society says it is politically incorrect to say that many people are just stupid when it comes to driving. We, as a society, need to grow a set of balls and call the stupid people stupid. Their feelings are not protected by any laws.
Indeed -- talking is merely a distraction, texting should be prosecuted as attempted murder.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
I'm one of those supermultitaskers! Yes I am! In fact, right now I'm driving while I posqoaherohd;lk
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
But what about the effect on the other person talking to the Supertasker. They are the real victims here, since I'm assuming that the Supertasker is concentrating on the road more than their conversation!
This is precisely why more forums are using catpchas.
But I follow them because I realise that driving is a privilege and not a right.
Think of the physical and mental thought processes when up shifting in a standard transmission vehicle.
Your brain interprets, through the speedometre and tachometre, that you need to shift.
You press the clutch in with your left foot.
Shortly after you press the clutch in, you move the shifter into the next gear. You may have to move down, up and to the right, up and to the left, depending on your make of car.
You allow the engine to speed down to match the next gear. How do you do that? Well, you factor in the ratio of the transmission gear and the engine speed.
When the correct engine speed is attained, you release the clutch.
To someone who can't drive a std. transmission, that can be very daunting, and seemingly very distracting - but it's not.
But in the end, you can either do it, or you can't.
Some people can drive and talk at the same time, some people can't. Unfortunately, the law has to cater to the lowest common denominator.
Personally, the only new driving law needed is one that says you must re-take a driving exam if you have an verifiable, 100% at-fault accident. Obviously, you fucked up, so you should be re-certified.
Karma: Can only be portioned out by the Cosmos.
... I don't actually support a ban. Not because I would ever want someone to do it - I don't. Rather, because the ban is absurdly difficult to enforce. Cops can't easily tell when someone is really texting versus just dialing. And even if someone was sending a text message while driving it isn't easy to prove that they did it. AFAIK we already have provisions against "distracted driving" and "impaired driving" in most states, they should just charge people under those codes if they manage to catch any.
Instead we should alter the computers in cars to detect when drivers are texting while driving, and have the cars wrap themselves around phone poles. Then we wouldn't have to worry about repeat offenders.
And while we're at it I vote in favor of stripping the word "text" of its new verb status.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Meowing on the phone doesn't detract from her driving ability in the slightest.
In other words, perhaps their attention is more or less permanently divided between driving and a Walter Mitty like daydream. Then the phone distracts them from their daydream. That would imply that their driving performance doesn't decline because even when not distracted they drive like the rest of us would while on the phone.
TFA doesn't have enough information to know if the analysis considered that or not, it only spoke of relative performance for each individual.
This is just another example of JUNK SCIENCE being used to enact laws to hurt the little guy. Liberal elitist scientists have proven time and time again that they are more than willing to make up "facts" in order to promote their own secret agendas. Whether it is global warming, gun control, evolution, and now these bullshit studies about cell phones, the list is almost endless.
It interferes with me doing the crossword puzzle.
Is this hoohah about talking on your phone, or texting with it? C'mon...
Talking on the phone has never been too distracting for me, and is at least as safe as having a passenger, unless she's better looking than my phone. Another problem.
But texting for me is an interesting proposition. Sometimes I do fine, and someetimes I have to stop cause I'm just not supertasking. I can see banning that, but banning conversations talking on the phone, that's stupid if you have a headset. If you don't, you should consider getting more life insurance. One-handed driving is a ticket to the morgue around here.
ps- 'Supertasking'? Nimrods. What's with the jargon creep?
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I used to drive all over the metro DC area, delivering packages under deadline pressure. We had radios where you had to key the mic. The two minor scrapes I was in had nothing to do with the radio. In fact, I'd say speed and pressure had more to do with them than anything else. When I was on the radio, it actually seemed to focus my attention.
Like why I can drive while getting a blow job.
The article you are responding to clearly states that 1 in 40 people who engage in these activities are not any more dangerous while doing it.
It has nothing to do with "supertasking", though.
I believe the reason I can safely drive and talk on the cell phone is because I tend to ignore people talking when I'm doing something else.
In effect, I'm an inattentive listener, so it pretty much doesn't affect my driving, because if I have to do anything driving related, I tune out the person talking to me.
I'm also not afraid to drop the phone (literally) and deal with something if I need to. Anecdote: I was rear-ended once while on the phone. I was watching the rear view, noted the car behind me was going *way* too fast, threw it into gear and punched the gas onto the shoulder. (I dropped the phone in the process) She clipped the driver's side tail of my bumper, then plowed into the car that was (previously) directly in front of me. Picked back up the phone, apologized, briefly explained, then hung up.
That said, I *cannot* dial the phone or send a text. Both are dangerous when I'm driving.
Am I am of the 1 in 40? I can talk on the phone while driving with little to no performance suffering on the driving side. BUT- I prioritize driving so much higher that you wouldn't WANT to talk on the phone with me, since I often miss half what is said or pause to respond.
$renice 20 phoneuse
That just illustrates I *can* use the phone safely, but something is going to suffer, and I let it be the phone. I find it no more or less distracting than a passenger talking. That said, I very rarely use the phone while driving- only when very important, and always hands-free. Texting? Never while moving, only at a stop... and that, rarely, too.
Supertaskers... More like delusional assholes.
1 in 40 is such a bad driver that being on the phone just doesn't matter!
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
If you're sure you could do it, why not arrange for a test and find out. There's no reason not to do it if would not impair your driving ability. In fact, I'd say that people who think they may be supertaskers should be able to take a test at the DMV to get a special license, given that their ability to react is not at all impaired. I, on the other hand, do not need to take the test to know I wouldn't pass.
Most of them are wrong.
http://www.aqfl.net/?q=node/7470 :D
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Somewhere there's a happy carcass laughing his ass off, and his headstone says "Charles Darwin"
...Supertaskerus!*
*Didn't read through all the comments, but I am rather amazed that there aren't more posters claiming the "Supertasker's" cape.
Or is it cowl?
Shield maybe?
Sword?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Only stupid, selfish, ignorant, bastards drive while on the phone. I don't give a damn about your life, but that teen who is just learning how to drive doesn't deserve to die because of you.
I've driven for more than 22 years without an accident, in LA, and DC, and foreign countries. Why? I've successfully evaded a tremendous number of people who were set on hitting me. Part of that is always going to be luck, as you cannot plan and prepare for everything. But the far greater part of it is also paying attention to your surroundings, your projected surroundings, and manuevering into positions that give you options. Truly defensive driving. I've had people try to rear-end me at intersections at more than 50mph. I've had people try to t-bone me from side streets. I've had drunks on the wrong side of the road at 2am try to head-on crash with me. So far, I've been paying attention, driving defensively, and staying alive and crash free. I do not care how good you think you are at multitasking. Throw an unexpected road hazard at you and try throwing the same one at me. I promise you, I'll outperform you every single time.
A study group of 200 in set conditions. Sounds to me like 1 in 40 people are more comfortable while driving and are capable of concentration on other things. I fail to see how this proves cell phones are not a distraction from driving for a small percentage of people. Perhaps it would have been better to say;
Those more comfortable with driving as a task, do better when having to perform another task, under set conditions.
For I do not believe for a second that these people are going to retain their 'supertasking' ability in an emergency. The whole idea behind not allowing cell phones while driving has more to do with emergency situations then running a red cause you're a jackass and are distracted easily. Any lapse in concentration from driving (changing radio station, conversing with passenger, looking at scenery) has been proven to cause accidents. Why? The unexpected. If your full attention is not on the road, pedestrians, other vehicles, and things directly pertaining to the task of driving, you absolutely will miss something one day, and you absolutely will pay for it with injury and possible fatality.
Over what period of time and with what consistency were these drivers able to perform at this level?
...and so is everyone else on /.
When a person can be cited for juggling a sandwich, drink, chips and the steering wheel between his hands and legs, then the roads will be safer. I'd lay any odds to the availability of fast food being directly related to the accident rate on any particular stretch of highway.
Basically, the conclusion is that some people are better than the majority of other people at certain things.
Who would have thought?
Oh and those guys that are better are probably better because they have more *experience* with it, so if you train, you can become better too!
Even if you don't RTFA, the summary contains this little gem which most seem to have missed:
In a small study, such 'supertaskers' were just as good at driving when carrying on a conversation over a hands-free phone as they were when fully focused.
The keyword is hands-free. In fact, in most states with cell phone driving restrictions, the restrictions don't apply to hands-free phones. So I don't know what this proves. The next article quoted in the summary goes on to talk about texting which does require hands. So the summary is really comparing apples and oranges. In fact, I'm not sure what we're supposed to conclude from all this.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Bless me father, for I have sinned on the road.
Even though I have bluetooth and speaker phone capability in my BMW, I haven't recorded the people I want to call on my voice-activation list, and so I hunt my iPhone for their names while weaving in my lane.
I also sometimes check new email headers just because I am so bored during my 36 mile commute.
I also confess to glancing at the cover screen which pops up new text messages and missed calls and voicemails when they come in.
So while I don't text per se, I am certainly guilty of being distracted while driving.
I am NOT a supertasker. I just can't resist the siren song of the iPhone, always beckoning me with the sweet voice of non-boredom...
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
If you were asked to control your car while doing some distracting math problems (the test given in the study), you would probably do poorly. But note that "probably." There is a chance that you might simply luck out and do fine.
That chance might even be somewhere around 1/40. Without doing way more work than spending an hour in the car with 200 people, we don't know.
In short, there is no good evidence for "supertaskers" in the article. Don't fall for the hype next time, kthx.
37 out of 40 people think they are the 1 person out of 40 who's just fine. 36 of them are mistaken.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
and should not drive while on the phone.
i fucking fail aht reaheahding thihs suhmmarhymm whili hummm behing duhruhnkg...
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
Great, now everyone will believe they are supertaskers along with being "good drivers" and above average intelligence.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
I'm still waiting for congress to outlaw children, pets, food, makeup and music in vehicles. I find those to be bigger distractions to drivers. In my proposed law every driver is sectioned off in a sound proof, Faraday caged corner of their own car away from all passengers with no other input but the road! The car won't start if it senses food, drink or mp3 players. The rear-view mirror detects the application of makeup and causes the minivan to pull over. The last part is the outlawing of all flying insects that can enter through the windows. That's the only way to be completely distraction free and will help the economy because an entire industry will be created to retrofit every car on the road to being this new form of street legal.
Anyone who actually needs to devote 100 percent of their attention to their driving under normal conditions is most definitely a seriously bad driver and dangerous to everyone else.
The brain hunts for efficiency. This means it does not devote more effort to routine tasks than is required.
This also means the brain tends to try to put idle cycles into work on something, anything, else.
This should be plain as day. Common sense isnt common.
Why I drive drunk so well? I'm an ultra-mega-super tasker!
I hate riding around and seeing idiots jabbering on the phone in their SUVs and driving like I'm not even there. I feel like there's absolutely no recourse to the action. They aren't likely to hear me if I cuss them out, and I don't typically carry items to throw. I feel like there's nothing to reinforce proper behavior until they kill somebody, because there's just nothing I can do to them to get it through their heads that they are dumbasses before they drive off. Seriously, is there any way to get these idiots off the road? Will sending photos to police help?
Distracted driving is just that...a distraction. I can multitask with the best of them, but if it is other than a simple SHORT conversation, I find a parking lot to duck into (even using blue tooth). I use to volunteer working 911 for almost 13 years, and was very good at hearing 2-3 radio channels AND the phone, picking out what I needed, but, I didn't have to worry about crashing the radio into the wall either, I was sitting on my butt! Talking and driving is bad enough, TEXTING and driving is C&I, pure & simple.
Now we're going to have every asshole who causes an accident while texting/eating/shaving/writing a report/all at once will whine "But I'm a supertasker! it's impossible for me to drive distracted!"
Ya, but you're here too and I don't hear any mooing.
Sounds like a case of projection to me.
How is talking on a hands-free phone any different from talking to the guy in the passenger seat? (In fact, I'd probably be safer on hands-free phone than I am when I'm talking to a date and tempted to look at her while I talk.)
Pilots are trained for the ability to prioritize tasks while multitasking.
Aviate - navigate - communicate
In that order. Its not all that hard once you get your priorities straight. Respond to the tower -after- youve finished making your turn, adjust transponder -after- finishing your climbout... in the car tell your friend to hold on a sec while youre crossing that intersection, wait until -after- that lane change to fiddle with the cd player.
Using these methods i have been able to navigate LA rush hour in a 18 wheeler whilst talking to dispatch on the phone without any danger to myself or others.
Like you said, we dont -really- want drivers to glue their eyes to the road with 100% attention over a 6 hour drive anyway, it leads to fatigue and highway hypnosis... however we also dont want people watching cable tevee on the dashboard, we need to find a happy median somewhere in between.
Supertaskers are lousy drivers to begin with. Throw in a simultaneous phone call and they still can't pay attention to the road.
Does this mean that 1 in 40 drivers are supertaskers, or do they just suck at driving whether they're on their phone or not? If the latter is true, I'm pretty sure that number is way off.
You can't make laws or rules to suit the minority who are exceptional if it means also allowing the unexceptional through the gate.
You can see the difference between a Supertasker and a Supertaker by comparing with the Undertaker because of Undertasking.
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
The figure given in the stub, and the linked article, is inaccurate.
"The small percentage of what the authors termed "supertaskers" obviously left the authors considering the possibility that it was a statistical fluke. So, they created four pools from the scores from their tests (memory, math, braking distance, and response time) and used Monte Carlo sampling to create 100,000 random scores. Supertaskers appeared in only 0.16 percent of these, which indicates that the 2.5 percent figure they saw represents a real phenomena. "
Cite (seventh paragraph)
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
instead of thinking of 'supertasking' as only the ability to just do more things simultaneously you have to add the ability of some people to multitask some combinations while others can multitask other combinations.
Think of kind of a map of things a certain person can do simultanuously, and things that get in each other's way.
Different people have different maps, and training can modify the map to some extent.
With training a pianist can learn to do different things with left and right hand, or a drummer can learn to play different rthms with left and right feet.
On the other hand some guitarists can easily sing and play, others just can't do it, as if one guitarist needs the same part of the brain for both tasks, while another uses different parts.
Richard Feynman once spent time investigating that map. Some people can easily keep time, counting off 60 seconds very reliably while doing other tasks such as reading, and others just can't do it.
Some people will be better at multitasking, while some will just be different at it. I wonder if the researchers distinguished between those.
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall
Really, anyone that drives any amount in the US (I can't speak to other countries) has seen plenty of bad drivers. Ask yourself this: in the last two years, how many drivers that did something stupid that forced you to yield when you had right of way were talking on a cell phone?
In my case, it was almost every single goddamn one of them.
"Physics is Fun to Imagine" interview with BBC
I can't play 'tube on this box. It's likely segment 11 or 12 where Feynman gets into a multitasking competition with statistician John Tukey, and discovers that they can multitask different things, if no-one around here is patient enough to sit through the whole thing.
Just what did he think he was doing wasting all this time figuring this stuff out 40 years ago before anyone cared?
Now if they'd only ban reading while driving in traffic (or 65mph+) or putting on makeup, or shaving, or... ???
I very often use my cell phone while i drive as I am know that I am able to do it as I never take my eyes of the road, .....you can not be clueless, or unaware while driving...as there is no room for error.
even to dial (speed dial), I often even eat on the road while driving, but there is a way of driving while doing activities that
you must be aware of
Accidents happen because of lack of care....if you pay close enough attention, you can always avoid most accidents.
Many people are oblivious though, and giving them another reason to be even less aware on the road is not a good thing.
I do not think cell phones should be illegal, but then again I do think many people should not be allowed to drive...
and have their license revoked
The breaking reaction time was 20% lower, but they gave themselves 30% more following distance. Is that overall a net gain in safety? Someone should work out the math on that...
"That which does not kill us makes us stranger." -Trevor Goodchild
but we're also fine with holding a bottle of beer in the other hand and steering with our knees ;-)
are they sure that those people aren't just crappy drivers that are usually distracted by something else?
But it really does not matter if you're talking to the mobile in your hand or the person sitting next to you!