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NHTSA Suggestion Would Cripple In-Car GPS Displays
bricko writes "The recently issued National Highway Transportation Safety Agency guidelines for automakers to minimize distraction for in-vehicle electronics included a proposal to freeze maps on navigation systems. No more scrolling maps...just static pictures. 'Every current installed navigation system uses the car as a fixed point, and shows the map moving around it. NHTSA wants that changed so as to keep the map fixed. Even showing the position of the car moving on the map could be considered a dynamic image. The recommendation seems to suggest that the position of the car could only be updated every couple of seconds. Likewise, the map could be refreshed once the car has left the currently displayed area. This recommendation would essentially make navigation unusable. The system could still give an auditory warning for the next turn, but without being able to glance down at the map and see how close the next street is would likely lead to a lot of missed turns and resultant frustration.'"
People will just realize they are about to go the wrong way and change lanes even later than they already do.
I bet the standalone GPS makers are behind this, who would buy a car with a crippled in-dash system if it sucked that bad?
In other news, picture books whose pages are turned every few seconds are set to replace current programming on several major TV stations.
While this move is being decried by futurists, it cannot be denied that it provides a greater source of intellectual stimulation than current shows.
I swear, government must be run by the lowest common denominator.
Your brain will easily tune out a smoothly scrolling picture that has minute changes one frame to the next. A change in the visual environment that is small will not trigger a threat assessment by the brain.
However, if the image is still, and then suddenly changes, that is a far more significant change in the visualized environment, and the brain will tune to it to see if that change represents a threat.
Drivers should focus on the street and the traffic and not being distracted by some ads.
"This recommendation would essentially make navigation unusable."
Paper maps don't scroll OR indicate where you are. They've been providing perfectly usable navigation services for thousands of years.
Oh, you mean "automated I'm too lazy to figure out where I'm going before I start the trip because I can't be bothered to learn which way is north" navigation?
I don't see anything outlawing voice systems. Do you?
Who wants to pay for a built in GPS? Just use what's on your smartphone, or buy a stand alone unit. Either is cheaper, both in initial cost and to keep up to date, than one provided by an auto manufacturer. And, the NHTSA has nothing to say about it.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
be required to hold their breath the entire trip .....
My phone came with a GPS navigation app. Any time it is moving, it blanks the screen and says "GPS Navigation Not Allowed While Moving."
This would just mean that automakers need to focus on smartphone integration where you can just plug your smartphone into a dock built into the dash where the CD player normally is and the smartphone acts as the CD player's screen. I know a car or two has iPhone integration similar to this. Unfortunately, Google needs to get their act together because their 3rd party hardware support is nowhere near the iPhone's. They need to start putting out consistent hardware that can be targeted for hardware integration like this.
Yet another example of big government encroaching on personal liberties and freedoms in the name of safety. Soon we'll be so safe we won't need to leave our houses! We won't be allowed, either.
The game isn't liberal vs conservative - that's just a red herring. Freedom vs tyranny is the real issue.
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
For those of you bleating about how this idea will make GPS "unusable", I have one question:
Have you ever used a paper map?
Remember the "bad old days" of folding out the map at the side of the road, looking at it, and planning the next leg of your trip?
That's right: figuring out where and when you have to turn BEFORE you reach the turn. Actually KNOWING where you're going instead of letting a machine do the "thinking".
This change would not cause the world to come to a sudden end, but it might well force people to think and plan for themselves again. And if that means some brain-dead loser suddenly can't get where they're going, I say "good riddance -- you were a road hazard anyhow, careening around the streets with no idea where you are going."
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Drivers should be able to handle seeing stuff moving about without being distracted - otherwise they wouldn't able to drive (nor should they be allowed to drive). Using their logic they should ban all animated/video advertisements near roads.
;).
I think many drivers can cope with these moving displays and even talking on the phone - just takes enough practice and proper training[1] (pilots and others manage fine). The problem is when drivers do it on public roads when they haven't reached that level of skill.
[1] One of the tests to pass might be being required to drive from A to B on a simulator through difficult traffic conditions, while answering hearing comprehension questions and doing mental problems (e.g. you hear a sequence of random numbers, you are supposed to say the 5th one each time you get a new number). With time limits for both. If you pass such a test, you'd be a better driver than 99% on the road, the rest would be a danger to you not vice-versa and if we ever meet by accident it would likely be my fault
The manuals for these things already advise you that in most states it's already illegal to be watching the screen anyway?
Sounds like a great idea. If you cant follow the endless repeats of "Turn left on Oak Street in 500 ft... 400 ft... 300 ft.." and think you need the scrolling map just to catch your turn, you SHOULD NOT BE DRIVING ANYWAY.
Not only that, but the car's velocity would no longer be conveyed with a static display. It's why digital numeric-readout speedometers were a failure in 1980's Fords -- they didn't convey acceleration.
"The system could still give an auditory warning for the next turn, but without being able to glance down at the map and see how close the next street is would likely lead to a lot of missed turns and resultant frustration."
Because it is literally imposible for someone to engineer an audio-only alert system for GPS units.
I've used standard GPS units, and I've still missed turn-offs. The only sure-fire way of doing things right is to study a map beforehand, plan ahead, and then pay attention to the road. You know, what we've been doing for the past century.
1. All this will do is encourage people NOT to waste $2,500 on in car GPS units and use their cell phones handheld or mounted to their dashboards.
2. It clearly shows the NHTSA hasn't done any real research on this issue. If they had, they would have come out with a much different solution. My own independent research has made it clear that GPS units screen movement are not the issue but the location of the unit. (off to the right, centered in console)
Safety would be greatly improved by relocating the GPS console to the driver's side directly in line of sight, and with a night heads-up display even better. Why is this? Because having it in the center of the console forces drivers to look away from the road, and offers ZERO reduction in distraction. However, placement in front of the driver's line of sight does something interesting. Even when the driver is distracted by looking at the screen, the road remains in the driver's line of sight, and the driver's peripheral vision remains on the road.
Peripheral vision is attuned to movement. A driver is able to still be alerted to an incoming car or obstacle even while focusing on the GPS screen when it is position properly.
D@|\/|N Government....
Oh its always good to see something like this put into place. Lets restrict the good and new rather than rewrite the old.
So because it takes a few milliseconds (or a second) to glance down and back up we should kill the distraction. In the first place why even make a law, but if you HAVE to have a law, why cant it be something like "if navigation is going to be built into a vehicle, it must be installed in place of the drives view of the road"?
I just hate how backwards retarded we are at times.
While I get why they want to do this, I feel this is a case of which is the greater problem, distracted drivers who look at the screen, or dangerous drivers who pull u-turns, late-lane changes, etc when they realize they've missed the turn.
If it were more like wearing Augmented Reality glasses, where you have a transparent overlay on the actual road, the driver could keep their eyes on the road, and the GPS system would only show the detail needed to make the course corrections.
The existing systems require taking your eyes completely off the road. But most people either have a passenger or will actually stop and check the map if they need to. The people that benefit the most are cab, bus and other transit-related drivers.
While we're at it, why not get rid of all those other dynamic displays: gas gauge, speedometer, rear-view mirror ...
Why does everything come down to the distraction and not the driver. A good driver won't be distracted by a scrolling map, won't answer there phone on the highway and etc....... How about changing the driving test to weed out the drivers who think the world is mario kart. I must get cut off or nearly tboned once a week by an idiot running a red, a stop sign or just not paying attention to the road. So how about getting the drivers who act like children off the road and reserve driving for those of us who can walk and talk at the same time.
Cell phone use is being banned in cars because studies showed that you effectively drive "drunk" when you're talking on the phone. Science wins on that one. What's the equivalent evidence for GPS systems? I haven't heard of anything. In fact, GPS systems appear to have been designed to minimize such distractions, allow easy and quick referencing and along with voice instructions, allow relatively safe navigation. I think science wins on this one as well. Scrap the regulation.
Whilst I don't need a scrolling map all through my journey, what I *do* need is a map of a complex intersection where there are multiple exits (usually from a freeway) within the space of 100-200 years/meters.
In such situations, it can be difficult to work out which is the right exit because often signs are also not 100% clear in those situations.
this move is so amazingly silly. One word: "maps". Some of you might remember those. Remember folding them open in your lap while driving ? I'd like my company to require neverlost (hertz) whenever we're going to a new town. Neverlost or whatever service actually make you a safer driver, gets you to where you're going, *much* more safely, especially when showing up at night, during a weekday, in the rain. This is insane.
They really need to regulate these GPS "systems" - I can't tell you how many times I've driven into walls or bodies of water because the "system" told me to. I think it's the government's responsibility to keep me safe from these nefarious products that seem to be designed to damage my car.
While they are at it, perhaps the tachometer and speedometer should be frozen, since they could be distracting. Make the turn signal indicators solid... that blinking can be distracting. Better make sure there is no sweep/seconds hand on any clock.
And passengers- especially children, those should be frozen too. They are MAJOR moving distractions.
Oh- they should repaint all the lines on the roads to not have dashes, since those appear to be moving. Mirrors....
People around here sure love FORCING other people to bend to their will. What a great world.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
We have so many out of control bureaucracies and they tend to survive by never pushing people too hard too fast.
However, every so often they go WAAAY too far and piss so many people off that it causes everyone to ask seriously "can you make me?"... and the reality is that if they try to cash this check it will bounce.
So they should do it. And the TSA should strip search people. And the FCC should start censoring the internet.
All great ways for overblown bureaucracies to cut their own throat.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
I use GPS whenever I'm in an area I don't know.
Like others, I don't look at the screen to see how far it is to the next turn, because the GPS tells me how far it is. Repeatedly if it's a long way. It's just not an issue. "In 1.2 kilometers, turn right on Main Street". "In 200 meters, turn right on Main Street". "Turn right on Main Street". Not too challenging.
Occasionally, I miss a turn. I miss a lot fewer turns than I would if I were distracting myself by staring at a map on a screen, and a lot fewer than I'd miss if I didn't have the GPS, but I do miss turns. You know what? 99 percent of the time that's not an issue, because the GPS will notice and reroute me before the next intersection. Whoopee.
Who gets frustrated over something like that?
But I was taught to rotate my map to that it faced the direction I did.
Look at the dearth of numerical LCD gauges in cars. Why is that? We used analogue meters back in the day because, well, that's all we had. However in a modern car, that instrument cluster is part or all digital on the back end. It has to convert the digital signals it gets to the analogue gauges. So why not go for digital LED numbers? Cheaper to produce, and more accurate. You'd know your speed down to the MPH (presuming the unit that reads it is that accurate). In fact there were some cars with them at one point, but they seem to have gone away.
Well the reason is it is distracting. If you put a big LCD speed readout there it's abrupt changes distract the driver more than the smooth movement of a needle. Quick changes catch the eye, smooth motion not as much.
Same would hold true for something like this. A smooth updating map that scrolls along with car movement isn't very noticeable. Something suddenly changing draws the attention.
In-car navigation systems are incredibly distracting (in particular the built-in ones) , piping up with unnecessary blather. The screen on many of the new hybrids has unnecessary moving diagrams to show electricity moving into the engine, including rotating wheels and moving arrows. Utter crap.
But there's another side to this -- GPS systems enable you to get to your destination faster. Meaning less time on the road congesting roads, less time on the road meaning lower chances of death, less last second dashes across five lanes of traffic to make an interstate exit...you get the idea.
Honestly it's a crapshoot, but given how incredibly dangerous car travel is already, anything to minimize the time spent on road needs to be considered as more than just a convenience.
If I wanted updates on my driving every few seconds, I wouldn't bother to duct tape my wife's mouth.
As people would look longer at the GPS to try and wait for the refresh, they'll start crashing into things more often. Better to ban them outright than do this.
Glancing at a screen from time to time, while listening to the audio directions is really not much of a distraction. I am stuck delivering pizza at the moment, and I completely *rely* on my GPS. We deliver over a massive area, and the GPS cuts down the time to find a particular address, and the fastest route to it, by a considerable margin.
If you want to eliminate distractions, make handheld cellphones inoperable while moving. I see more people chatting with their cellphone held to one ear than anything else in the way of distractions.
Oh, also eliminate in car stereos that go over about 40 db. I think its important to hear whats happening around you as well.
I don't see a GPS as much of a distraction, provided you aren't trying to input data to the system while you drive. That's a fine-able offense up here in BC anyways (although so is talking on a cellphone and its not being enforced near enough).
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
If the goal is to remove distractions, all vehicles should have the driver in an isolated compartment. No fussing kids or conversations with the passengers to take their focus off the road.
While a GPS can be distracting, it also has that great benefit of allowing people to pay more attention to the road and other vehicles, instead of scanning for street signs and building numbers.
GPS systems are a huge distraction. Do you really need a GPS for day-to-day driving? For most people, how often do you really drive somewhere you don't know? No more than a few times a year. And do you really need a GPS in a city you don't know? No. READ THE ROAD SIGNS! CHECK A MAP BEFORE YOU LEAVE! Folks that drive with GPS seem like some of the worst drivers on the road. Why? They are watching the screen and not the road signs. They are missing the obvious visual clues to where they are going.
GPS laws might not get much traction. Most places it's illegal to drive while on the cell phone but people still do it. Somehow, you put that iPhone in a dash mount and people somehow thing it is now a legal "hands free" device. People need some common sense.
How about only letting the user interact with the navigation device when the car is in park or the engine is off. The problem is not people watching the map it is playing with or changing the destination. If the car must be stopped and in park then the problem would be greatly reduced. An alternative for portable devices would be no interaction unless the car has not moved for 10 seconds. If the car starts moving in a single direction the user is locked out. The random motion when stopped could be trapped for and ignored.
Because we are a squashed little island, there isn't room for large, well designed junctions like you have in the USA. This week we went round a junction in Leeds which would confuse a knot theorist; later on my phone I counted eight roads meeting. In London there are frequently two or more left turns off the same road junction. The road signs are so dense as to be completely unreadable. My satnav puts up a picture of the junction, indicates the path through it and tells me when to turn, but the visual display is often very necessary - and far less distracting than staring at a huge overhead sign and muttering "Do I want Dewsbury?"
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I don't use gps to tell me where I am going, I use it to tell me where is the next street I wanted to turn on. IOW I use it to compensate for street signs that are too small for the average road speed (interstates get big signs but local roads where traffic flows 40+ regardless of the speed limit do not) or placed in a crappy position (cross street name on only one side when it crosses a 3-4 lane road) or both.
Unless you are a trucker, I probably spent more time navigating with a paper map than you have driving, so get off your high horse and join the real world.
Outlaw coffee and food and drink in the car, and you will find more accidents from sleepy people.
Helpful Disclaimer: this is not based on empirical evidence, but just out of a desire to be able to have food or drink in the car. It is a rationalization in which I assume empirical evidence will bear out anecdotal observations which fit with post-hoc rationalizations that accord with my existing (though only occasional) habits.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
I get that this would render GPS systems less usable. But the notion that it would "cripple" them or make them "useless" is alarmist nonsense. You know, the paper maps that I used to keep on the seat next to me when navigating in unfamiliar territory didn't automatically scroll for me, and never indicated my current location. But they worked. Sometimes I'd actually exercise my brain and memorize a route ahead of time! This sounds to me like a bunch of lazy stuck-in-their-ways but-this-is-how-I've-"always"-done-it whiners complaining that they might have to adapt, rather than a reasoned argument for why changed functionality would be unsafe or non-functional.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
We need blinders for drivers, so they aren't distracted by information. Also all cars should only have own gear, park. Problem solved. After all the nhTSA is not about getting you there. Their goal is clearly different.
My backside does that for me far more effectively than a speedometer needle. If you can't feel the G force, really you should not be driving.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The one and only time I drove a car with a GPS device in it I quickly discovered that I was watching the map more than I was the road. It took a lot of concentration to re-focus on the road. It's hard to imagine anything more distracting while driving except maybe putting on make-up or texting with an unfamiliar phone. That said, I don't recall hearing of many car accidents related to watching the GPS map. Unless evidence proves otherwise I don't see the point of changing the way GPS orks now.
Generally speaking, I agree with you. On the other hand, I know some people (my wife) who can't navigate anywhere and are constantly turned around. The reality is some people have a good sense of direction and can memorize a map with ease, and some people can't.
I'd rather have my wife using a GPS then call me frustrated while trying to describe where she is while actually having no idea and just becoming more and more angry.
I don't have time to make a sig
Personally I have found the cellphone based GPS SW is far better then the normal stand alone ones.
You think idiots following the directions and drive off a bridge, drive into the ocean are
bad now?
...so I need GPS, period. I have a Garmin Zumo mounted on the triple tree of my Ducati 1098, and I supplement that with turn-by-turn directions from Miri. Glancing down at the Zumo while piloting my bike is not distracting, and the real time velocity indication on the Zumo is *way* more accurate than the bike's, which is (deliberately I'm certain) too high. With that said, for people who need four wheels under them, the obvious solution to me is integrating GPS into a HUD on the windshield. My 'Vette has an outstanding HUD -- it integrates forward-looking video that enhances the edge of the road, other moving vehicles, and objects like pedestrians and parked vehicles. In low visibility conditions like nighttime or rain, it is nothing short of amazing. Overlaying the HUD with a route and turn indicators should be trivial.
I see a lot of distracted drivers in my job, from an angle that allows me to typically see what the distraction is. I can honestly say that I have never seen someone distracted by staring at their GPS. I have seen people nearly cause collisions while trying to program a GPS (typically while getting directions from a cell phone), but never just staring at the GPS. I wish they would just focus on enforcing the current laws that exist rather than add more useless regulation.
To be blunt, how would you have the least freaking clue whether or not it has a "surprisingly minimal effect on driving."? All you know is that you haven't had to swerve or stomp on your brakes in a while.
I suspect the drivers around you might have a difference of opinion on the matter.
They also want ALL cars to have back-up cameras: http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2012/02/car-backup-camera-rule-delayed-again-by-nhtsa.html REALLY?! It's more likely that you get bitten by a shark while being struck by lightning than run over someone backwards.
We need an information based way of considering these things. A measurement of how much total distraction a car is allowed to give the driver. Then we can use that metric to allow or disallow various things.
It's perfectly safe for a driver on an open highway to use a cell phone. If he has a manual transmission, less so. If he's drinking coffee too, probably unsafe. A driver may be able to handle a GPS safely if it's in visual format for faster integration. Perhaps the car should allow no more than two of: manual transmission, radio, cell phone, GPS.
It's been proven that talking on the phone is almost as distracting without the headset.
My point is by worrying about where the driver's eyes are they're taking entirely the wrong approach.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
North is essential if you are lost in the woods and have no idea as to your location, but do know your direction.
But in a moving car, we turn steering wheels "left" or "right", not "North" or "South." Re-orienting the map to the current direction of travel makes perfect sense, especially if you are looking at the display quickly, and it's not immediately clear which way the car is pointed. (At least, not without looking at the symbol for your current location closely.)
With the map always being oriented to the direction of travel, I can see out of the corner of my eye how far it is to the next turn, and which direction the turn will be in. If the map stays oriented North, and I'm right on top of a turn from, say, East to South, I can't tell if I need to make a turn at all, or if I'm supposed to go straight; at least, not without examining the direction pointer closely.
I completely agree with both points. I use my cell phone, the only time I look at it is to check the distance to the next turn when I know it's a few miles away; the audio tells me when a turn is about a minute away and then again at the turn point (radio off when using the GPS). You don't need to watch the screen, ever.
If you really want to get rid of distractions you should have a law against passengers.
Talking to passengers has proven more distracting than talking on a phone.
I am wasteing my previous mod points but oh well I do not have a in car navagation system or gps or even smart phone with internet, but you say that people do not need gps nav because most people do not go all that many places that they do not the way to all that often. That may be true for you but if for people like me who go trying out new hiking and camping and fishing places way out in the middle of nowhere on back roads a nav system would be a God send. I hate trying to read a map while driving and no reading it before hand is not always enough. If I am driving clear across Washington state to go fishing with freinds just glancing at a map before leaving is not enough. Just because you do not have a use for it does not mean others do not have a use for it.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Glancing at a screen from time to time, while listening to the audio directions is really not much of a distraction. I am stuck delivering pizza at the moment...
But posting to Slashdot while driving a car is downright dangerous!
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
I swear, government must be run by the lowest common denominator.
Wrong. Government is run by people that go way past stupid, and into a realm we can only label "governmental" - which is fine, since everyone knows exactly what is meant except for those joining in the delusion that government can ever not end up in this place past stupid once it gets going.
The rest of humanity knows how useful GPS is, knows they can manage the ability to drive with other possible distractions. Only the very few among us cannot see this simple truth.
The problem is, they are often capable of getting into position to allow this level of stupidity to affect real people. It doesn't really matter if they pass stupid laws you can easily break, but we are close to the point where stupidity can bypass the user and target directly the manufacture of goods - such as disallowing "real" gps units anymore, for anyone.
Well, except for technical people of course, since we can always roll our own. But I am wholly against living in such a world even though I benefit from it, if the rest of the world must live in any kind of technological poverty.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My Ex recently borrowed a GPS device to go to a wedding for some friends. The location was in a city with which she was almost completely unfamilar except for the main interstate route. She told me how this machine gave her instructions like:
"There's been an accident a few blocks ahead - Turn left at the movie theater"
"Drive around behind the theater and find the 1 lane concrete bridge - look for a green trash dumpster next to it."
"Cross the bridge and turn right - the speed limit is 25 - you are in a residential neighborhood, watch for children>"
It got her to the wedding with no delays. I've got no idea who makes one like that, and she just assumed they were all like that.
Who is John Cabal?
It's so comforting to know that everyone on slashdot is a perfect driver and incredibly adept at navigating by map or reference to the stars. You guys are really amazing, your smugness is so well deserved! I feel so SAFE when I drive by one of you, map in one hand, bagel in the other and driving with your knee while valiantly resisting the spread of distracting technology!
Now, judging by most of the people I see on the road, you guys are in the overwhelming minority. Ban GPS entirely, and bad drivers will keep finding ways to be bad drivers.
I must know who makes it.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
... who work for the people you elected.
That's only technically true. They really work for themselves, basically trying not to be noticed as they expand empires.
A group like this can stick its neck out when they get slightly more sympathetic masters, but then turtle up anytime they get leaders who are not as sympathetic.
In that way EVERY governmental organization can simply ratchet itself larger and larger without end. They outlast any one elected official and grow without bounds until you have groups making such utterly stupid propositions as we see today.
This is just one of many reason why we need to see sharp reductions in federal government, not just monetary but actual headcount reduction to offset the unchecked growth we see from these groups. And that goes across the board.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"relocating the GPS console to the driver's side directly in line of sight," ... therefore obstructing the driver's field of view...>
Don't drive much?
Because it's very easy to position something like a smartphone between the instrument cluster and the windshield without blocking your field of view at all - I do that every day.
It is better to have a device there than significantly off to the side, which demands a longer (relatively speaking) period of time where you are not looking directly at the road.
By the way, if you already do this with your stand-alone unit, you might want to read the warnings in the instruction manual not to, since it will become a projectile in a collision.
I can see your grasp of physics is as keen as your understanding of the rest of the driving mechanic.
Why would I have been driving so fast BACKWARDS as to worry about my phone becoming a projectile?
Do you know what happens to objects in motion in the event of sudden deceleration? Hint: It's not that they magically start traveling the opposite way.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Source?
Sexual intercourse is kicking death in the ass while singing. ~Charles Bukowski
Interesting. I hate having forward-up; I want a fixed map. But I also use the system differently than how you describe your use. I carry the map in my head and use the electronic map display to update my mental map. Even if I don't know the area, I want to have an idea of my route and the immediate surroundings. Having the map spin around disorients me: When I try to update my mental map, the on-screen map will have likely changed orientation and so I have to work harder to re-align mental with screen.
For turn warnings, I listen to audio and look at the next turn indicator at the top of the display. My GPS has a fairly easy to see arrow.
It would appear we use the system differently. It sounds like I'm more interested in the overall map than you.
It's common for people to describe themselves/others as having a good/bad "sense of direction". Different people have different skills. I generally seem to have a good sense of direction. I always have a mental map of my surroundings. How about yourself? I'm wondering if how we like to use GPSes reflects our own sense of the physical world.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
GPS systems use rotating maps because Etak, the first car navigation system, introduced in 1985, did. Etak originally didn't have it. The original map display did not rotate, and always had north at the top. This was consistent with nautical practice, and Stan Honey, Etak's CEO was a notable yachtsman.
Etak discovered that about 20% of the population could not comprehend a map that was oriented differently from the real world. So they made the map rotate with the car, which seemed strange at the time.
Everybody else copied that.
Yet another counter-productive wealth income and time and freedom shredding useless government agency.
". The system could still give an auditory warning for the next turn, but without being able to glance down at the map and see how close the next street is would likely lead to a lot of missed turns and resultant frustration.'"
This is going to cause more accidents. When people are lost and frustrated, wandering in circles, they are more likely to get into an accident trying to resolve the issue. Not to mention, that's more time more people spend on the road, further increasing the accident probability.
and what about passengers that want to look at the GPS to make sure that drivers are going the right way?
We bought a navigation system only last year and only use it for new trips. Even then, we check the general direction beforehand with e.g. Google maps.
The navigation device is programmed at home at put in the glove compartment. If we don't understand the spoken instructions, we either drive in the direction that the street signs tell us or that we feel is in the right general direction (usually, the navigation device recalculates after about 2 crossroads), or the navigator grabs the navigation system and searches for directions (that's what a navigator is for).
All in all, the driver never looks at the display and we are not afraid to ignore the spoken directions.
The navigation device doesn't get angry at you for missing a turn and is much faster in recalculating a route. That helps in staying relaxed.
Here we go again with the newjerseyfication of the other forty-nine states. It's high time to read the following:
The Orphaned Right: The Right to Travel by Automobile, 1890-1950
Roger Roots
Fair Procedure Initiative
Oklahoma City University Law Review, Vol. 30, p. 245, 2005
Abstract:
Driving an automobile is a privilege, not a right, according to the prevailing laws of every jurisdiction of the United States. However, this was not always the case. When automobiles were first introduced around the turn of the twentieth century, drivers relied on common law traditions that protected the right of every person to travel upon public roadways without a license. Courts repeatedly wrote of an individual's "right to travel" by automobile and struck down regulations aimed at limiting the liberties of automobile drivers on constitutional grounds. With the passage of time, however, automobile regulators generally prevailed in legislative halls and courtrooms. Today, the public has accepted a degree of travel regulation which would have seemed almost tyrannical to nineteenth century Americans. This paper analyzes this change in common law and suggests that even if most Americans are unaware of it, the change represents a substantial loss of liberty.
In my own experience, reading road signs is far more distracting than listening to the Tom-Tom tell me where to turn.
Tom-Tom gives me warnings starting half a mile before the turn, where the road signs are, even if clearly visible, only giving me hints within a few dozen yards....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
If you want to eliminate distractions, make handheld cellphones inoperable while moving.
As a bus and train passenger, I thank you for that suggestion. Not only will I be unable to use a cellphone even if I'm not endangering anyone, as I'll have to waste all my battery to keep the GPS always-on, in order to ensure that restriction.
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Interesting, as I had read (sorry, no citation) that it was the other way around. The rationale was that the passenger (generally) knows when it's okay to talk and when to shut up. However, the person on the other side of a phone conversation has no clue.
You're making the following groundless assumptions:
Do people really need a GPS? No. But that doesn't mean GPSs aren't a net benefit.
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Like compgenius3 - I need a source. I figure you're pulling facts out of your ass, because you can't pull them from anywhere else. What RoccamOccam says is true as well. Except for small children, passengers at least have a clue that you are concentrating on something important. The schmuck on the other end of the phone has an inherent belief that he is the center of your attention, that your very being revolves around his words.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
It has to be said. When the government goes too far like this, the citizens would be well served to ignore it. If the government persists, you show them the practical side of the 2nd amendment.
Fuck the government bureaucrats, the horse they rode in on, their daughter, their wife, and the land where their house is built.
I'm a big boy: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/410445/mind-if-i-touch-your-balls-sir
- - - because there is NO PLACE in all of Washington State that a person can safely stop for five minutes while they read the map again, and possibly make a couple of notes.
Dude, I've driven Washington many times, north-south, east-west, kitty-corner, and loopty-loop. Even the biggest cities have nice wide shoulders on the interstates, where you can safely study your map. Primary, secondary and tertiary roads all have businesses located on them, unless you're out in the countryside, where there are nice big pulloffs and shoulders.
But, go ahead - make excuses for your own lack of planning, your own need for speed while endangering those around you.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Forcing others to have give up functionality because some boneheaded nanny state bureaucrat thinks that everybody else can't adapt to technology is the epitomy of NEOLUDDITE. The "way we have always done it" has been with maps, and everybody else who is no retarded has already pointed out the the bureaucrat preferred method to help us unwashed masses is to return to that paradigm through static displays updating periodically. Government intrusion without hard data to support its mandate is nothing more that meddling by self important assholes who are spending their workdays justifying their existence.
All owners must hire a state employee to be their driver. Owner passengers must be prohibited from talking, eating, drinking, of course smoking, interacting with any device or person at all times. The state employee hired to drive the vehicle will be the absolute law in the vehicle at all times. All dissent will be punished.
I don't think GPS moving map displays are the problem, at least after the first few times you use one. The larger issue is the terrible touch UI. It just isn't a good system when driving. I used to have an N95 that I used for navigation and as an MP3 player. I could easily search/spell using T9 without looking or with just a quick glance to make sure it had the correct spelling while driving. Now that I have an Android phone, I have to look at the screen to do anything because there's no way to feel the keyboard under my fingers. It is FAR more distracting to the point that I often need to pull over just to pick a new album.
I'm really looking forward to next generation systems that don't need touchscreens. The new Audi nav system that lets you draw letters on a console mounted touchpad is a good start. Steering wheel controls that could interface with phone's bluetooth HID protocol and act like a joystick mouse would be better.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
If you can get over the "bad government" knee-jerk, is this such a bad idea?
A static screen showing a clear schematic of the next significant turn, with distance and ETA, might actually be a lot more effective than a continuously moving map that may or may not be legible (I nearly went down a one-way street the other day because the voice instructions were ambiguous and the map was so cluttered with speed camera flags that you couldn't see the roads).
My GPS does have such a mode - the main reason I don't use it is because I want the pretty pretty lights. Maybe I'll give it a go (not that I use GPS much, anyway - you can't beat looking at a map before you start and remembering where you need to go). Even in "moving map" mode, good GPS's show a preview of the next junction or two, which I actually find more useful than the map, as it lets you know in advance what to look out for. When the turnings come thick and fast and this breaks down is, unfortunately, also the time at which you don't have a spare eyeball to look at the screen.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
I know there's a lot of complaints about distractions, specifically cell phones, texting, smartphones, etc but has anyone reached the conclusion that driving is somehow more dangerous than it used to be?
I'm a little concerned that we're managing by statistics and only interested in lower numbers, which is not evil, it seems kind of misleading and leads to kind of draconian ideas to find the changes necessary to alter the statistics without taking into account some kind of bigger picture.
For example, if N people are killed or seriously injured due to futzing with a GPS, we decide to make the GPS less useful, without ever understanding that pre-GPS X people will killed or seriously injured fumbling with a piece of paper, looking for street signs and trying to read addresses in traffic.
I don't know if N or X is the larger number, but what if they are the same? We can't ban fumbling with a sheet of paper, but we can ban or hinder GPS. We may "solve" the GPS deaths but we just end up re-creating the other navigation deaths as well as inconveniencing people who otherwise find great benefit in GPS devices.
Well, not everyone is as incredible and amazing as you. For the rest of us mere mortals, they make GPS.
Sarcasm noted.
Sarcasm: A dismissive form of flattery used by those who are unwilling to make the effort to do things right.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Yes, I DO need a GPS for driving every day. I work in five states, and dozens of cities and towns each year. I know where I'm working tomorrow, but the next week? Next month? I've spent nearly 36 years going places I've never been to before. GPS is a godsend; I wish it had been around years ago!
You might be right but you haven't met the OP's mother in law...
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Moron: A person who beats his head against the wall trying to change the world while unable to see his point of view applies only to himself.
because its much safer to read a paper map while driving.
You look down at your navigation system while driving? You know that's what the audio is there for, so you don't have to?
I would have said this was ridiculous over regulation, but apparently some people are, in fact, that dumb.
You are driving. Keep your damn eyes on the road, before you kill someone.
Instead of Government getting in the way and trying to run everyones' lives, how about smaller government and more freedoms? I would rather rely upon civil litigation lawyers in the case of driver malfeasance and personal injury, instead of an overbearing Nanny State. In car GPS is hardly the worse distraction for drivers. I used to drive the I-495 Beltway around Washington DC every day, and I once saw a vehicle drifting back and forth between 2 lanes (non-rush hour traffic) who I sped by and overtook at a high rate of speed (70+ mph). The driver had a newspaper unfolded on the dashboard in front of his steering wheel, a cellular phone BT headset he was talking to, and was changing clothes while driving (when he wasn't sipping on a Grande Starbucks coffee).
We all will not need GPS in our vehicles much longer anyway, since there will be enough TSA / BP / Nat. Guard / check-points to go through that there will be plenty of stops to make use of either a GPS or paper map quite safely. Those women drivers that need directions can always ask at those multiple check-points. The Police State has arrived, and with martial law right around the corner. Big Brother makes one heck of a guardian Nanny State nanny, slinging a cocked-and-locked M4 assault rifle, and wearing day-old latex gloves lubricated by "smelly smegma" for your "erotic" pleasure.
I've already stopped flying, and when martial law kicks in I'll probably stop driving as well. Frack Big Brother Obama && Big Sister Napolitano. I've had it with this banana republic. How many Americans have died on average per year from "terrorist" attacks, compared to, for instance prescription drugs, or cancer, or even drunk drivers?
If it is such a good idea (minimizing distractions), I insist we implement the same Drive/Fly Safe(tm), Distraction Free(tm), policy on commercial airplanes!
Static screens on everything (including the artificial horizon)!
Won't that be much safer?
Just do a search on 'Western vs Russian Artificial Horizon' to see how much fun it makes things.
"In Soviet Russia, horizon does not revolve around you...."
Since using a GPS in my car, I rarely black out due to extreme road rage. I spend considerably less time lost in unfamiliar areas. (Less time in car = less risk.)
... because they were easy to check.
You mount the gauges in such a way that 'normal' would be straight up an down. You don't car if the oil pressure is 60 or 65 psi, all you need to know is the needle is up and down. So at 200mph a quick glance at the gauges and you see that everything (at least in the engine) is OK.
Indy and Formula 1 cars have moved to digitial displays mostly because LEDs and computers allow displays that are like "flash when you need to upshift" and a single LCD display (backlit with multi-color LEDs) allows the information displayed to match the driver's current need. Let the computer check oil pressure.
Look at cars like Porsche, a big tachometer, a digital speedometer, and smaller analog gauges to the side of the tach. As god intended. :)
Obviously they just tried testing this idea with a graph of the US GDP, not updating the display caused no confusion for the user since it has essentially been in a constantly declining line since 2008.
When oh when will our national nightmare end?
The study referenced in this article claims just the opposite.
If they really want to reduce distracted driving this is what they should do: Whenever there is an accident both drivers' phone records for the previous minute should be automatically subpoenaed and reviewed. If either driver was talking or texting and is even partially at fault then arrest that person and treat it as a similarly serious crime as causing an accident while drunk. Since it has been shown that talking/texting while driving impairs driving as much as being legally drunk, the penalty should be comparable including loss of driving privileges, jail time, and massive exposure to tort liability. That might actually make a difference, since the current regime of drunken driving laws and the associated stigma have actually reduced drunken driving accidents.
Banning GPS displays will only force the directionally challenged back to using mapquest printouts, which means leafing through pages and trying to read a poorly labeled map while driving, which is unquestionably worse than a GPS.
-- QED
GPS systems are a huge distraction. Do you really need a GPS for day-to-day driving? For most people, how often do you really drive somewhere you don't know? No more than a few times a year. And do you really need a GPS in a city you don't know? No. READ THE ROAD SIGNS! CHECK A MAP BEFORE YOU LEAVE! Folks that drive with GPS seem like some of the worst drivers on the road. Why? They are watching the screen and not the road signs. They are missing the obvious visual clues to where they are going. GPS laws might not get much traction. Most places it's illegal to drive while on the cell phone but people still do it. Somehow, you put that iPhone in a dash mount and people somehow thing it is now a legal "hands free" device. People need some common sense.
However, I live in a very large city and just moved further out the in suburbs than where I'd been living for the last 13 years. I'm not familiar with all the back roads where I live now, and the major road that I drive daily to get to work had an accident on it last week, completely blocking the road. I'd already studied maps of the area and had a vague notion that if I made a turn into the neighborhood next to where the accident was, that I could get back to a major road that connected to the interstate. However, which turns to take, and when, was not something I had yet memorized. Navigation would have been intensely helpful at that point.
How about we remove the brains from you people, and simply use you as batteries? It's quite obvious you people don't need or want to use your brains, and are (for all intensive purposes) quite useless.
And do you really need a GPS in a city you don't know?
Yes. Even more so than in the highway.
READ THE ROAD SIGNS!
What rod signs? The rare ones that specify the other street in an intersection or the small ones that are on buildings and specify the street I'm driving in.
CHECK A MAP BEFORE YOU LEAVE!
I cannot remember directions if there are more than 3 (any more and I will lose the order) or if I am in a totally unfamiliar city. So, it;s either using a GPS or having a paper map and marking my route on it, then stopping at each intersection and checking the map.
Somehow, you put that iPhone in a dash mount and people somehow thing it is now a legal "hands free" device.
Do you have to hold the phone in your hand while talking? If not, then it's hands-free. While you still need to press a button to answer the phone, same is true for headsets.
echusarcana sounds like he works for NHTSA.
Because in the end, all the government can do is say "NO" and that's fine.
I can only conclude that if 100% of your ability range could read a map, as you claim, Scandinavian superiority is fully established and the extreme backwardness of England is fully demonstrated. Permit me, however, to retain an element of scepticism.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I use GPS at least once a week, but I
1. Watch all the signs and other drivers
2. Always signal when switching lanes.
3. I do not have time to check the map + my GPS can suggest an alternative route if traffic situation worsens on some part of the way. Can your map do that?
I'm near a Dunkin Donuts next to a Catholic Church with a bar across the street
That doesn't narrow it down at all in Boston. That's a common occurrence about ever 4 blocks.
Bravo!
God: When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
I use a satnav on a motorcycle. It stays in my pocket and I listen to the audio, which I treat as purely suggestive. The stuff happening in the real world in front of you is what matters.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Of course you don't need GPS for day-to-day driving.
As for checking the map before you leave I can give you a good example of a time that went horribly wrong for me. I checked the map, printed out directions and knew my way for the first 60 miles of a 65 mile or so trip. I'm good up until I get to exit 50B (or something like that). So I'm cruising along the interstate and there was no exit 50B. Great. So I spent the next 20-30 minutes lost in an unfamiliar city and even stopped a couple of times for directions (Should I turn in my "man card" because I did that?).
I made a lot of wrong turns basically driving around blind in a ghetto hoping I would find my destination. I knew I was close, but in short order I wasn't even sure which way was north.
Even if the GPS were wrong and thought this mysterious non-existent exit was the one I should have taken it would have guided me to where I was going when I took the closest exit I could find to it.
That said I don't try to look at the display when I should be looking at the road. Generally the voice navigation is more than enough, but if I hit a stop light I will take a look.
WTF is the matter you people? Most of the comments here are bitching about "getting lost" or what not.
1. Figure out where you are going
2. Look on the map and all roads around it
3. Take the map with you, in case you get lost (eg. on residential street)
4. Drive based on your memory from your map.
5*. If you get lost on some small street, pull over, take out the map and figure out where you need to be! If you are lost on the highway, get off the highway first!
99% of all our driving is in areas and cities we are familiar with. There is absolutely NO REASON to have some GPS distracting you in the first place.
Each distraction in your car that cause your attention to wander, like glancing on your GPS, is 1-2 second lost concentration. In 1-2 seconds, traveling at 65mph, you travel about 30-60m or 100-200ft! Even traveling at 30mph, you are traveling 50-100ft in the time you can refocus on the road!
I don't know. Maybe we need manslaughter charges for people that kill others on the road because they are drunk, high and/or distracted (phone, gps, map, talking, etc.).. Each car should have a camera and if you don't react fast enough in case of emergency, and someone dies, boom, jail. Maybe then we'd have less retarded behaviour on our roads.
Right, it seems their real target is this notorious "glance". Why don't they just push for regulation about glancing while driving. Hell maybe we should even stop this "blink" I've heard so much about.
If we can find a way to glue people's eyes wide open and prevent them from turning their heads while driving, the roads will be safer than ever!
GPS gets less attention than my Stereo Display, which gets less than my Gas Guage, which gets less than my Speedometer. Hmm... seems like an even more vicious criminal is the Speedometer. Perhaps we should do away with those too? Perhaps it would be a good time to remove rear and side view mirrors?
Because what this country needs more of, is regulation.
You live in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area, but the city roads are terrible and you don't drive into them much. You get called for Jury duty, requiring that you do drive into the city to reach the courthouse. The GPS helps you from being lost in a mass of spaghetti-style exit structures for the access roads, and multiple one-way streets. Also important, if you make a wrong turn, and get off your chosen directions, it can help you find your way back. I know this from experience.
I can't place judgment on your opinion, because I know I used to have a low opinion of GPS, so I know how easy it is to think just as you do. In fact, my opinion of GPS was much like the xkcd on Google Maps. But after serving Jury duty, I now appreciate it greatly, and understand why people rely on them so much.
No, it doesn't. It says that talking to passengers is less distracting than talking on the phone. In other words, the nominal case for the cell phone is worse than the nominal case for an adult passenger. However, when you examine the worst case, their relative levels of distraction reverse fairly dramatically.
Try comparing the driving errors made by someone talking on the phone to an adult versus someone with seven kids jumping around the back seat, hitting each other with those long foam sticks, throwing food, and one kid complaining that he/she is feeling nauseated while another kid keeps reaching around the seat and covering your eyes.
Trust me, passengers can be much more distracting than a telephone. In the worst case, you can throw the phone out the window. And although in theory, I suppose you could do the same thing with your kids, I'm pretty sure there are laws about that.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
When the Feds handed drivers the shit sandwich that was the 55 MPH National Maximum Speed Limit, Mike Valentine and Jim Jaeger made lemonade to go with it, pulling down hundreds of millions of dollars selling radar detectors.
So, as an entrepreneur I'd like the chance to do something similar, helping the citizens to work around their own berserk government while getting paid like a rock star. NHTSA can bring it on. If my company doesn't sell an aftermarket navigation system that works, someone else will.
It's so comforting to know that everyone on slashdot is a perfect driver and incredibly adept at navigating by map or reference to the stars. You guys are really amazing, your smugness is so well deserved! I feel so SAFE when I drive by one of you, map in one hand, bagel in the other and driving with your knee while valiantly resisting the spread of distracting technology!
How many comments in this story actually match that description?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
This is moronic.
A frozen image in time means that what we see is literally seconds in the past. Which may in fact be a completely different scenario to the driving conditions of this moment. So now the driver has to guess how far back in time and then some how remap there location on the visual map then make an appropriate driving decision.
Yep, This is obviously safer than the current method of having millisecond accuracy ( Assuming your GPS doesn't suck ) with a simple glance then making a driving decision.
It takes 2 seconds to realise that this idea is bad.
What's the difference between a screen displaying operational data (like navigation) or any of the various gauges that you use to operate the vehicle?
For instance, I find myself very distracted by constantly looking down to my speedometer when going through some of the areas around my home where the local police will nail you for 35 in a 25.
The difference is in the time it takes you to read it. You can (or at least should) register the number or needle position in a few milliseconds. Compare that with the time it takes to read and interpret moving text on a screen. Old dashboards where all of the needle gauges are all pointing in the same direction when everything is normal? There's a reason they did that.
Also: if you can't avoid unconsciously accelerating while driving through residential neighborhoods, I'd worry about more than speeding tickets. Try learning to drive manual; you end up being much more aware of what your car is doing.
A driver prone to distraction will find something to distract themselves with, even if you put them in a box with blinders on. What we need is a reliable test to detect drivers prone to lose their situational awareness, or ones that are easily distracted, and then simply deny them a drivers license to start with.
I also think that you will find that the vast majority of these people are over 60 years of age. So I would also be in favor of requiring annual road tests after that age. This would allow the Department of Safety to remove drivers who have lost the ability to be safe drivers from the roadways, while still letting those who are still capable continue to drive.
We definitely should not be penalizing the majority of drivers because of a small minority.
I can't say how many times the GPS warned me about a upcoming sharp curve on the an unfamiliar road and allowed me to respond before reaching it instead of having to lock up the brakes because the sharp curve ahead sign was missing.
I will not purchase any GPS device that implements these recommendations.
"GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 51230 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Setec Astronomy)"
Print out detailed directions to your destination and follow them between highway exits or stopped at a traffic light.
There's an advantage to analog displays: you can quickly glance at them and see position and trending on the scale of [low..high] or [bad..good].
Three or four decades ago, there was a diesel tractor manufacturer who set up their analog displays such that the needles all pointed to the 3 o'clock position when all parameters were optimal.
That sort of easy check becomes more important when there are many things to simultaneously monitor, such as aircraft and nuclear powerplants.
An idiot light tells you you've been fucked (oil pressure, water temperature, "check engine").
A guage (analog display) lets you see trouble coming enough in advance that you at least can break out the ass-lube.
For what (rational) reason would we want to create automobiles which are less "human-friendly" than they can be?
People can't function as well with these distracting devices. Your brain is wired to be be drawn to moving items like a scrolling image on the dash. It is not an AGE specific problem. Sure this may be upsetting like a reality show contestant finding out for the 1st time (on national TV) that they actually suck -- your brain isn't all you may believe it to be.
GPS makers may make a MODE for this; that is, until a law is written... won't be hard to have some studies to back it since the recommendation is well grounded in at least a basic understanding. I've done some reading in the area; go find a prof and ask.
The NHTSA not unreasonable; having learned to read maps I can manage without GPS and would be perfectly fine with a static ICON image moving on the map; the map itself refreshing no more than every 5 seconds.
Note: Speedometer changes constantly; but it is SMALL and consistent in motion--- a sliding changing surface is a larger more distracting item. One shouldn't misunderstand the reasons behind such recommendations.
Now the difference here is likely lower than the amount of accidents the old cause... but we can't recommend or remove driving rights from the largest voting block. Given how many distracted drivers almost KILLED me, I'm for anything that makes people DRIVE. I don't care about those people stupid enough to drive off a cliff because the GPS told them to... well, then I think the GPS is doing us a favor.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
If you want to eliminate distractions, make handheld cellphones inoperable while moving.
Great. So what happens when there is an emergency while I'm driving? I'll have to Physically stop the car and turn it off in order to call Emergency services? "No, honey, I know your giving birth, but I have to turn the car off in order to arrange for an Ambulance to meet us." bad example, but it makes you think about the kinds of situation where this could potentially be dangerous. I'm sorry, that is a fucking terrible idea on every single layer. The only way that would ever happen is through laws, and we all know that what you just mentioned would cause far more problems than it solved. If you can even say it solved everything.
Hah! :) You've never lived in New England. I never used a GPS until I moved here - having lived in several different states, some of them twice or three times, I felt that I could navigate on my own using maps and my 'sixth sense'. When I moved to a new place, I bought maps (or got the ones from AAA), and I was good to go. When I moved to New England, it was over two weeks before I managed to get from where I lived (in Worcester, MA) to my new job 14 miles away and back without getting lost. Now, after five plus years, I can manage to get from home to certain places that I frequent a lot but going to anything at all different from the five or six standard routes, I can get lost in two seconds. I finally gave up trying to figure my way around about two years ago, and bought a GPS. My trip time and frustration level immediately improved drastically.
This area has major roads that look like driveways and driveways that look like roads. Names change every 1/2 mile. Roads may say 'South' when you are going north, and actually may be going south in a mile or two at which time the signs will say 'East'. Nothing goes the direction it starts to go. I used to second-guess the GPS because I thought there must be a faster/shorter way. A few times I was right, but I've found that it's right far more often than it is wrong. It's sad, because I know that when I use the GPS I really don't get the 'lay of the land', I just follow the directions mindlessly. Even with the GPS I will have wrong turn issues once on average in any trip over an hour.
New England roads were essentially designed by cows and horses in the 1600s, and are maintained by ... well, I won't go there. There is no urge here to make roads straighter, more efficient, or to go to the local-collector-major-highway hierarchy of most places. A two-lane twisty road 20 feet wide may very well be the main road - for a mile or two. Then a hidden turn off (with signs that direct you in the wrong direction) will take the 'highway' off thataway, while what you thought was still the road will become someone's driveway.
For a while I kept the GPS in 'north up' map mode, but found that while this helped me keep a good feeling for where I was in space, it was completely unhelpful in getting me through the crazy intersections that plague the road network here. The only way to really get a feel for how to get through to the one of nine different cow paths that branch off over the next 400 feet is to use the 3D view. Even then it's not uncommon for me to end up in a parking lot or having to drive a mile down, turn around and try again.
And remember - I am one who has prided himself on being able to navigate in dozens of other locations. I am not a navigationally-challenged idiot. But this place is hopeless unless you grew up here - in fact even folks who live here confess they don't know how to get around outside of their very small local neighborhood.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
If anyone had actually bothered to read the NHTSA document (Yes, I know: This...is...Slashdot!), it explicitly says "The recommendation is not intended to prevent the display of images related to driving, such as images related to the status of the vehicle occupants or vehicle maneuvering or images depicting the rearview or blind zone areas of of a vehicle." (emphasis mine).
Wayfinding is considered a primary driving task, and turn-by-turn instructions reduce the cognitive load required for this. In general, they are not a distraction. The exception to this is where the driver already knows their route, and then the instructions do not reduce the cognitive load for the wayfinding task.
No, you don't. Cellphones have to correct for Doppler shifts and time delay to base station, else they wouldn't work. It's trivial to do so in digital electronics, and it improves network bandwidth, so all modern radio standards since GSM require this.
People actually rely on GPS while moving? That seems very dangerous. Can't you just check the directions ahead of time? There is no need to look at a map or GPS while driving. I use mine to glance at the "distance to next turn" every once in a while so I'm ready for it. I do not need to stare at some dynamic virtual birds-eye map to get where I'm going. And I'm terrible with directions.
Just because there are tons of distractions on the road, doesn't mean that newer, flashier distractions should be allowed...
Break something that works... I'm sure one of their "friends" has something that does just what they are ruling so that company can make money. Of course, I would simply order my GPS drop-shipped from China so that it did what I wanted rather than what Nanny-state Government mandated...
Most places it's illegal to drive while on the cell phone but people still do it. Somehow, you put that iPhone in a dash mount and people somehow thing it is now a legal "hands free" device. People need some common sense.
I hate to break this to you, BUT it IS LEGAL to use a phone if it's on a mounted dashboard holder in some places OUTSIDE the USA.
People noting that GPS devices are not needed have perhaps never lived in cities like the one I occupy. Roads often change names several times over the course of a few blocks, sometimes jog over a half block or end abruptly, only to begin again 2 blocks down the road. This is a city of 300k people, so not a particularly small town either.
I've lived here long enough to learn (most of) the idiosynchrosies, but my wife, for example, has only been here 6 years and still needs help finding places. I would purport that a normally functioning GPS, if used appropriately, is safer than trying to glance at a static paper map while driving. It is not a perfect solution by any means, but it would seem to be the best option we have for someone who is not familiar with an area.
Just another ignorant American.
As a fellow bus and train passenger, I would like to add my thanks. Not only will I be deprived of the intricacies of the dating life of the teens around me, I will also actually have a chance of being productive while on the move.
We had a small tour bus (band) with an integrated XBox. Try driving while a bunch of guys behind you are screaming 'break! break! left! Nooooooo! Attention!', because they're playing a racing game. If you ever need a nice bus in Germany, check out http://www.tourbusse.de/ (just a happy customer)
Hold my beer and watch this!
If you live in a big city and commute, its really nice to have the traffic features modern PNDs offer and have the device identify a traffic incident somewhere on your commute and route you around it. If you have a long drive to work every day, you might not know all the roads immediately off your usual route.
i have no use for punctuation i don't like boiled eggs so what i don't care
GPS are really good for driving. Before GPS people would unroll a map that cover half of the drive window and drive with their knees! Ever travel at night in an unfamiliar city? With a GPS it says where you are and when to turn! With it I am able to slow down and signal in plenty of time to not miss my turn or street! With gas being so high it saves me a several gallons a month! This stupidity would go back to a time when it was confusing as to what lane to choose in a large city to make it safely to your destination! Mine shows the lanes and pictures most exits with a detailed picture and voice direction to my turns and this is shown before you even come near your exit! Plus mine shows the speed limit and where traffic is to avoid it and to choose a route that will save you time and money! In a years time it saves me over $300 in fuel and it really saves on aggravation too!
Folks that drive with GPS seem like some of the worst drivers on the road. Why? They are watching the screen and not the road signs. They are missing the obvious visual clues to where they are going.
People that don't know their way seem like some of the worst drivers on the road, whether they use a GPS or not.
Road signs can be difficult to follow : sometimes they are hidden behind something, an intersection may be particularly complex, may reasons. As for maps they are even less effective in unexpected situations than GPSes and they don't tell you where you are. Unless your passenger does the navigation for you and does it well, you will get distracted.
The bad thing about the GPS is that you are less likely to remember your way the second time.
GPS systems are a huge distraction. Do you really need a GPS for day-to-day driving? For most people, how often do you really drive somewhere you don't know? No more than a few times a year.
For those of us who are road warriors or travel frequently on business, ALL THE TIME. The thing about GPS is, the thing TALKS so you don't have to stare at the screen all the time. Perhaps an occasional glance for clarification of something that is unclear.
I guarantee this idea would increase number of accidents if it were implemented. But it won't be, it's just a guideline, not a law.
There seems to be one group of habitual reckless drivers that keeps being excluded from these ever repressive legislation. I'm referring to a small group of people that drive high performance vehicles consistently over the speed limit. All the while, they're keeping track of text messages on dash board mounted lap tops. I'm not talking about a TomTom here. I'm talking about a full Dell laptop, powered on, connected to the net, open, facing the driver, being actively used by the driver, all while driving at speeds typically exceeding the posted speed limit.
How is it they're immune from distracted driving laws? It's not like any amount of training is cited in the DD laws as acceptable to be excluded. We're not seeing any statistics on their accident rates either because they too are omitted from traffic safety studies. But hey, somehow they're magically immune. Or at least, the enjoy "qualified immunity".
Can you guess who these reckless drivers are?
I just hope you don't have to find out the way I, after they cause an accident then blame you for their distracted driving.
No problem as long as the in-car display shows me 30 static pictures per second.
"If it's got a switch... it's my bitch!!"
Used properly, they aren't.
Used improperly, they are, but then so is anything else in the car, including the radio and the tachometer.
No, that's why I don't have the GPS display on in normal day-to-day driving. OTOH, when I do need it, a GPS with a vehicle-centered, orientation-aware moving map display that I can glance at periodically is much less distracting than stopping, reading a map, and then driving while trying to recall the information from the map. Or compared to a GPS display that wasn't vehicle-centered and orientation aware so that each time I glanced at it it took more time to figure otu where the car is on the map and what the orientation of the map is compared to the current driving direction.
People that would be watching the screen, rather periodically glancing at it for quick position fixes, while driving would probably be trying to read a map while driving if they didn't have a display. Getting rid of GPS moving-map displays -- which are far better when used properly -- won't make things better, it'll just mean that the people using navigation aids improperly will use worse navigation aids improperly, causing greater problems.
Taking useful tools out of the hands of people who have common sense won't magically give common sense to the people that don't have it.
Paper maps are at least as likely as electronic navigation devices (they face similar problems to preloaded electronic databases, and are clearly worse in this regard than systems which download map and incident information in realtime) to fail to be provide accurate navigation information for advance planning (either being out of date or not reflecting transient traffic or other incidents that close routes, alter allowable directions of travel, etc.)
And when they fail for this reason, they are much less convenient as an aid to a driver in quickly determining how to reroute to address the problem.
No, it doesn't. It says that talking to passengers is less distracting than talking on the phone. In other words, the nominal case for the cell phone is worse than the nominal case for an adult passenger. However, when you examine the worst case, their relative levels of distraction reverse fairly dramatically.
I don't see anything about the levels of distraction reversing, nor is the extreme case the normal case. Please provide a citation for your claims (or let us know when you are making up assertions without backing).
Looking around while driving and trying to read road signs seems much worse to me, especially here in MA where we have such crappy signs, you never know where the street signs will be because they are never in predictable places, you can never see signs for what street you are actually on, and they are all different sizes and colors. Not to mention you can't just glance at signs, you have to spend some time reading and comprehending them. GPS is way more intuitive and should result in much less distraction. Also can be very frustrating to see signs at night because depending on placement they may not be illuminated by your headlights.
Some places don't even have road signs on some roads in town.. my gps unit [okay smart phone] is a god send for traveling around, especially in unknown areas..
Perhaps with passengers that know better.
What about infants? What about toddlers that just HAVE to get mommy's attention RIGHT NOW?
That's a bigger distraction than a cellphone or GPS could ever be. Especially if said toddlers has toys that can be thrown.
Street signs even the big green interstate signs have
become less and less informative. How often have
you passed a street -- aha that was my turn when a
sign correctly displayed would have got you in the correct
lane in time to signal and make the turn.
In a can't get there from here world navigation tools ARE needed
the trick is to get them to work safely.
On point the codgers pondering the rules are like my 75
year old neighbor that took her GPS back because she
could not figure it out. Give them an OFF button and
be done with it.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
Clearly we should ban Starbucks Lattes and mandate people drink better coffee!!!
Congress needs to implement this urgently. ;-)