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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.
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?
*shrugs* If I need GPS, I use my cell phone. It has current maps, and doesn't require me to buy a $200 update every few months so I'm up to date.
I also stuff it in the cup holder and just listen to the auditory commands, if I'm using it for navigation. The screen *is* a distraction. If I want to study the route, I'll do it when the car isn't moving.
Actually, to that end, I'm a bit surprised that the NHTSA isn't suggesting that the in-dash navigation systems should blank the screen while the car is moving. That would make things significantly safer, I think.. they could even make it so that if it's pulled out and facing the passenger seat instead of the driver, the screen unblanks and updates, so that a passenger can give directions.
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."
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.
And how does becoming dependant on a big government project, GPS, for navigation help you get more freedom. Soon, the governent won't even need to put barriers to prevent protests, just stop sending correct GPS signal for the area.
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
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.
*shrugs* If I need GPS, I use my cell phone. It has current maps, and doesn't require me to buy a $200 update every few months so I'm up to date.
For what it's worth, there's quite a few consumer-level GPS receivers for car navigation (such as those produced by Garmin, TomTom, etc.) that have "lifetime" updates -- the maps are updated quarterly (or so) from the vendor.
I have one of these devices and it's quite handy. Many of the cell phone navigation applications I've seen require that one have mobile phone service to get maps -- they cache a bit of the maps in case one is outside of coverage for a little while but if you're out of coverage for an extended period of time (such as driving on rural highways in Nevada) the maps and directions quickly become useless.
Having a self-contained navigation system has its advantages in quite a few places.
"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....
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.
This is the government telling us what products company's can't manufacture despite there being a market demand and despite the product not being in violation of any laws. And despite the product not infringing on the rights of others.
Before you say anything, the same does not apply to many other regulations. For example, emission and gas millage standards affect the environment and since the environment is a common good used by everyone and something like poor air quality impedes others right, it is ethical to regulate it. A person does not have the right to take away the rights of another person.
Just a public service announcement, since the election is coming up in the US, if this makes sense to you and you agree, you might be a Libertarian.
As a side/personal note: the only car accident I ever got into was because I was in a city and didn't have a GPS so I had to spend more time trying to read street signs on the side of the road than actually watching the road. A GPS allows me to focus on what is important, being aware of other vehicles and people on the road, instead of what can easily be replaced by a machine (knowing exactly what the name of that street I am approaching is).
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.
The screen *is* a distraction. If I want to study the route, I'll do it when the car isn't moving.
Depends on the cities you drive in. I glance at the screen when I am unsure what the GPS means. Sometimes the device is silent but driving what seems straight to me is the wrong way - I need to keep right (the device would tell me to "keep left" if I actually needed to go straight in that place), this is probably some weirdness in the map.
Also, sometimes two roads are very close to each other, so when the device tells me to "turn right" I need to glance at the screen so see whether should I turn right now or go 15m and then turn right.
I use my UMPC for GPS. It has a bigger screen than my phone.
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.
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....
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.
Actually, my Android phone has no problem integrating with my car. If I want to use the Android phone as the controller, I can play music through the car's stereo using Bluetooth, and if I prefer that the stereo do the work, I can plug the phone into the car's USB port and mount it as a thumb drive. In both cases, the steering-wheel mounted audio controls work for changing track.
There's no standard dock for Android, so having a simple dock you can plug into on the dash isn't going to happen, but there's no shortage of systems that will let you integrate with the car. In fact, my car integrates better with Android than it does with an iPhone, because the iPhone itself doesn't like being used in that way.
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.
*shrugs* If I need GPS, I use my cell phone. It has current maps, and doesn't require me to buy a $200 update every few months so I'm up to date.
I also stuff it in the cup holder and just listen to the auditory commands, if I'm using it for navigation. The screen *is* a distraction.If I want to study the route, I'll do it when the car isn't moving.
Agreed, so the real question is what is preventing people from using their cell phones as dynamic GPS in the future, or is the NHTSA going after ALL devices with GPS technology and guidance software (i.e. even a laptop with Microsoft Streets and Trips)? I doubt their reach will go that far, but anything short of that is basically pointless.
Actually, to that end, I'm a bit surprised that the NHTSA isn't suggesting that the in-dash navigation systems should blank the screen while the car is moving. That would make things significantly safer, I think..
Ah, no, that would make things significantly more worthless. a GPS navigation system without a dynamic visual aide has basically been reduced to the value of a paper map. Might have fixed the problem, but you're sure not going to sell too many $3000 navigation packages on cars.
they could even make it so that if it's pulled out and facing the passenger seat instead of the driver, the screen unblanks and updates, so that a passenger can give directions.
Or the driver could just pull it out themselves and lay it on the passenger seat and use it anyway. Oh, the tech won't turn on because it doesn't sense a passenger (weight sensor tied to the airbag system)? No problem, I'll just set my backpack in the front seat, that usually does the trick.
Try and idiot-proof something, the world will build a better idiot. The real answer here to curb distracted driving is to punish appropriately and ENFORCE IT. Threatening someone with a $200 ticket doesn't mean shit if it's empty threats 99% of the time.
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.
LOL, I'm a libertarian. The only time I got in an accident was that time I didn't have a connection to a hundred billion dollar government military project to tell me where to turn. ROFL LOL
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.
Having driven on rural roads in Nevada, I would hope you don't need a GPS for help - i.e. take next left turn in 115 miles. First business on left (28 miles).
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."
Having driven on rural roads in Nevada, I would hope you don't need a GPS for help - i.e. take next left turn in 115 miles. First business on left (28 miles).
Touché.
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/
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."
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.
...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.
I imagine that under the proposed system, it would probably simply be illegal to use such things while driving.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
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.
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
they could even make it so that if it's pulled out and facing the passenger seat instead of the driver, the screen unblanks and updates, so that a passenger can give directions.
Yeah, as long as they provide a simple work around like that that we can all use to hack/defeat the original implementation, then I'm all for the law. But anything that's going to blank the very screen I would find most useful on me when I most need it would be utterly retarded.
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.
Great. Next time someone miss a turn or are unsure of their direction they'll just come to a full stop in the middle of traffic. I'm not convinced that this will increase safety.
... 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.
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
I'm a big boy: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/410445/mind-if-i-touch-your-balls-sir
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.
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."
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.
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."
But anything that's going to blank the very screen I would find most useful on me when I most need it would be utterly retarded.
3. I'm from the government ... and I'm here to help you.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I'm a bit surprised that the NHTSA isn't suggesting that the in-dash navigation systems should blank the screen while the car is moving.
Without screen you would lose a lot of valuable information, for example before big intersections it is 'life saving' to have atimely hint which lane to take so you don't have to do stupid lane changes further ahead.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
because its much safer to read a paper map while driving.
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?
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.
On rural roads it can be handy when your GPS alerts you that 110 miles ahead there was an accident, and the road is now closed. In 50 miles, you should turn left, then right in another 30, and approach your destination from the other side so you don't have to backtrack when you reach the closure.
It can also be handy with mountain passes that close suddenly after rockslides. Often while there is an online notification sent out, they only post signs a mile or so away from the closure, and not 40 miles back where the last branching road was.
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.
Who wants to pay for a built in GPS?
Someone who doesn't want to pay $28 per month to upgrade from a dumbphone to a smartphone.
Because in the end, all the government can do is say "NO" and that's fine.
Also, sometimes two roads are very close to each other, so when the device tells me to "turn right" I need to glance at the screen so see whether should I turn right now or go 15m and then turn right.
The smart thing to do would be for your Nav to say, "Turn right on Algonquin Street" rather than just saying "Turn right" and expecting you to stare at the screen to figure out which street it means.
Going into old fart mode, I remember back when you had directions printed out from MapQuest that would say "drive 3 miles and turn right on Algonquin." This way, you looked at your odometer and calculated 3 miles. When you hit about 2.5 miles or so, you started looking out the window for street signs on the right saying, "Algonquin." While you were looking out the window, you might notice that kid chasing a ball into the street or something. Ah, memories...
Hey! Get off my lawn!
While you were looking out the window, you might notice that kid chasing a ball into the street or something.
Not really, the signs that say the street name near the intersection are small (which means I can't read it until I get close, unlike, say, a speed limit sign) and are at the same height as the rest of the signs, so it means that if I am looking for a sign like that, I won't see anything on the road. Also, I will have to look for the sign for a few seconds at least. On the other hand, when the GPS says "turn right" I glance at the screen for a fraction of a second and can return to looking where I'm going.
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'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.
Not really, the signs that say the street name near the intersection are small and are at the same height as the rest of the signs, so it means that if I am looking for a sign like that, I won't see anything on the road.
That can be debated. First, if you're looking for the sign, there's a good chance you'll actually slow down--I know, it's a crazy thought--so you won't miss it.
But I'm curious: You look at the screen for a "fraction of a second." Give me an estimate of that fraction. Are we talking 3/4 of a second? Half a second? a quarter of a second? An eighth? Sixteenth? It'd be fun to put a stopwatch on it, because I wouldn't be surprised if it was longer than you think it is.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not insulting your driving skills or saying that you are somehow an evil person for doing what you do. I would probably do the same thing. What I'm saying is that most Nav systems I've seen tell you to turn right or left. Some of the more clever ones might give you a distance ("turn right in 500 feet"). But none of them aurally solve this problem and they expect you to take your eyes of the road--even for a fraction of a second--in order to resolve the problem.
While I'm not a big fan of laws like this, one consequence of a law like this is you would see some work being done to make these systems more speech-friendly because you wouldn't have the map to fall back on.
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.
Only if they also don't know that you can get a full featured stand-alone navigational GPS, with free lifetime map updates, for under $100 (under $50, if they watch for sales), instead of paying $2000 to the auto manufacturer. But, such a person would obviously be pretty ignorant, and probably shouldn't be driving.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
That can be debated. First, if you're looking for the sign, there's a good chance you'll actually slow down--I know, it's a crazy thought--so you won't miss it.
I slow down even when using GPS, so I don't miss the turn (if the intersection does not have traffic lights (or other cars) or the green light is on).
You look at the screen for a "fraction of a second." Give me an estimate of that fraction.
Probably about 3/4 of a second. If I didn't get it the first time, I look at the road then back at the screen. If I am moving, I do not look at the screen for too long without looking at the road (even if I am alone on the street, there is still a whole lot of potholes).
Some of the more clever ones might give you a distance ("turn right in 500 feet")
Mine says it three times - right after my current turn ("in 2 km turn right") then a few hundred meters and just before the turn. Still, it can be confusing when there are two options of "right" and the street names are not always shown on the signs.
While I'm not a big fan of laws like this, one consequence of a law like this is you would see some work being done to make these systems more speech-friendly because you wouldn't have the map to fall back on.
I don't think that it is possible. I have driven with a passenger who told me where to turn and I have been tat passenger to another driver (who does not know how to use a GPS). For most intersections it's OK, but some are confusing - "now turn right here" "Which right, the kinda straight right, or the right right?" "the right right" or "turn right here" "Which one, the first or the second street?" "The one that you missed" or "the first, no, I meant that other first, this isn't really a street".
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)"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I also stuff it in the cup holder and just listen to the auditory commands, if I'm using it for navigation. The screen *is* a distraction. If I want to study the route, I'll do it when the car isn't moving.
You're one person. Not all of us find an in-car map distracting. You don't want to use one, that's your choice. Don't force the rest of us to lose something we find very useful.
...quicker, easier, more seductive the darkside is...but more powerful, it is not.
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. ;-)