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Despite Well Known Risks, Survey Finds Most People Use Smartphones While Driving (cbslocal.com)
From a report: Everyone knows it's dangerous, but a lot of people are still doing it -- driving while distracted. In a survey of 3-million motorists, almost 9 out of 10 admitted to using their smartphone behind the wheel. According to a report by Zendrive, which studied device use among 3.1 million drivers over 5.6 billion miles of driving, in 88 percent of trips, drivers made at least some use of their phones. On average, they spent more than three-minute on the phone.
When my phone rings and I'm driving, I'll look at the front of it, to see who is calling. If it's important, I'll park and call them back. If not, I'll wait till I get to my destination. On occasion (city driving), I'll take a moment to turn off the ringer so that I do not encounter subsequent distraction.
It's unfortunate that, even though I do not use a cell phone while driving, I'm still breaking the letter of the law.
Not every car accident I've worked, but certainly in the past 3-5 years, most of them have been caused by cell phones. I've also seen three fatals caused by cell phones. Are there other distractions in the world? Sure. But none as ubiquitous as cell phones. I think many people look to their cell phones so often during the day, they no longer actively register doing so. You yell at your kids, you goof with your radio - you do that infrequently enough that you're actually cognizant of the change in your focus from driving to the other thing. Meanwhile we watch TV while on our phones, hold conversations with loved ones on our phones, walk down the street staring at our phones - we come to believe, because we didn't fall into an open manhole cover, that we're aware of our surroundings, that the cell phone is not consuming most if not all of our focus. We're wrong. And the woman who was rear-ending at a stoplight by a guy who was texting, pushed into opposing traffic, ejected through the driver side window, and then run over by her own car (100% true accident), pays the price.
This is one of those cases where we're fighting against reality, instead of dealing with it. What this study shows is that people really, really want to make calls (and probably texts and messages etc) while driving their cars. So what we need to do, instead of trying to stop them from doing it, is provide technology that makes it easy for them to do these things safely. For a start, we ought to mandate that all cars have a certain minimum standard of hands-free phone kit, that can be controlled without taking the hands off the wheel or eyes far from the dash - it's not rocket science, the technology has been around for ages, we just need standards to be set, and insurance companies encouraged to increase premiums for cars lacking certified kit.
I'll admit I've used mine while driving in the past. One near miss cured me. Now I either ignore the thing or pull over.
We found that driving performance of both younger and older adults was influenced by cell phone conversations. Compared with single-task (i.e., driving-only) conditions, when drivers used cell phones their reactions were 18% slower, their following distance was 12% greater, and they took 17% longer to recover the speed that was lost following braking. There was also a twofold increase in the number of rear-end collisions when drivers were conversing on a cell phone.
Hardly an increase of 10,000% as the OP suggests.
Driving while talking on a speakerphone/headset is worse than driving without talking to someone. Also, driving while tired is worse than driving while not tired, and oblivious drivers are worse than non-oblivious drivers. As usual, the devil is in the details.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
You must have a very cheap and/or very old car. In new cars, pretty much everything above the very bottom of the line is a usability nightmare. Think touchscreens and/or "dynamic" buttons (rows of featureless buttons next to a LCD that displays the current function). Oh, and then there is the shuttle control where you twist and depress a knob to navigate a maze of twisty menus, all alike.
Smart phones at least have the advantage that (when you aren't worried about people seeing you use your phone in the car) you can bring it to your field of driving vision, rather than having to turn your head and sometimes lean your body over to see what you are about to press.
Plus, and I'm going to be called nasty things for saying this, but traffic accidents do not appear to be "way up", like they would be if smart phones were causing a ton of new accidents. I've seen some conjecture that the people who are prone to distraction will find something to distract them, and the problem should be addressed by working with those specific drivers, and not by chasing after the distraction that happens to be most popular at the moment. It will probably take several more years of data to clarify that. (And our data isn't trustworthy, but that is a rant for another day.)
See that "Preview" button?
TFA claims that 9 out of 10 people are using a cell phone while driving, but how many of those are using the two we would consider safe?
1. Phone calls: Voice assist means you don't need to take your eyes off the road to dial, and you surely don't to talk. I don't believe the hand waiving stereotypes fit for conversations while driving. At least as a generalization.
2. Maps: As with phone calls, once you plug in the directions there is no need to take your eyes off the road. "Turn left in one mile", "Turn left in 1/2 mile", etc...
There are other aspects of a phone which are certainly distractions and require screen time, but using the two apps mentioned is no more of a distraction than having a conversation with a passenger in the car. People can be morons with those uses, but lumping all users into the same "evil" basket is foolish.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
For those who don't have their nose in their phone 24/7, a quick glance around you on the freeway will show you what we already know.
Many of the drivers buzzing along at 80+mph are only half paying attention to the road. The rest of their time is devoted to doing whatever on their smartphone.
This isn't limited to vehicular traffic, the same holds true for walkers, joggers and even folks on bicycles.
Personally, if someone drives off a cliff and removes themselves from the gene pool due to this sort of stupidity, I would have little issue with the matter.
However, the problem is these snowflakes are putting EVERYONE at risk with their behavior and it's painfully obvious that asking nicely and Public Service Announcements are doing little to curb it.
In the past, when I've tried to nicely point out to the driver who is weaving all over the roadway because they're playing with their phone instead of paying attention to the road, it's nearly started fights. They KNOW they're in the wrong, yet go full stupid when someone calls attention to it. Have actually had folks stop the car in the middle of the road and jump out wanting to fight. Or they go full road rage mode, hit the gas, jump in front of you and slam on the brakes.
All for trying to get them to simply put the phone down and drive the fucking car :|
Hell, we recently had an incident here where the driver of a large non-commercial truck was all over the place because they were playing on the damn phone. Others saw this, recorded it, called 911 to report it and nothing was done. The truck later veered into an oncoming lane and hit a bus head on. Killed quite a few folks if I recall.
The days of asking folks nicely are over.
Self-drive cars will be one option, but even at their current pace it will be a decade or more before they are ready for the average driver. Much longer before we see a majority of them on the roadways.
Near Field, RFID or a simple low power xmitter built into the car designed to set a bit in the phone when powered up could be used to disable all but emergency functions of a phone while in motion. This would greatly annoy passengers*, but since we're done asking nicely, it is what it is. Since the carrot isn't working, we have to resort to the stick instead.
*We managed it in the days before cell phones. You'll live. I promise.
We could severely increase the penalties if caught while driving distracted with one. Give it the same rules as a DUI / DWI since the outcome, more often than not, is the same. Crank the penalties up. $200 is laughable. $2000 per infraction stings a bit more. Confiscate the phone, the vehicle and revocation of the drivers license is much more eye-opening.
Sound harsh ?
Remember, this stupid behavior is putting everyone else at risk so I would rather see folks lose their possessions than someone else lose their life. If you're still willing to play with your phone while driving with these types of penalties in play, then you certainly don't deserve to have a license to drive to begin with.
So, this being Slashdot and all, I'm guaranteed to get flamed to death for even suggesting the above, but the fix for a problem doesn't begin until you can admit you have one to begin with. Everyone that is guilty of said behavior is in flat out denial that it's a problem at all.
That being said, ( again, since this is Slashdot ) what realistic technology options could be implemented today to solve the problem ?
Phones -can- be used safely in a car. You just have to know that you need to prioritize tasks. In aviation
Nope. Stop stop stop.
You cannot make reasonable comparisons between what happens in aviation and driving. I know you're trying to bring up reasonable rules that apply to aviation, but the comparison is just a non-starter.
Consider the orders of magnitude of training and required flight hours that pilots require in order to obtain and keep their license. Consider that, broadly speaking, there is a world-wide authority in charge of the flow of air traffic that pilots communicate with at least a handful of times during a flight. Your average pilot is much, much more disciplined than the average driver, and infractions from pilots are much more likely to result in a piloting license being pulled (Harrison Ford notwithstanding).
So, no, don't say "phones can be safely used in a car". That's deliberately misleading. A 10 year old can safely use a chainsaw, too. So what? That's stupid, and you're stupid for saying what you did. Just say "Phones will most likely be misused in a car".
The problem we're having is that our reaction to it so far has been to just outlaw it & write tickets.
People drink and drive too. It's not a problem that can be legislated away 100% but we can really turn the screws on the persons irresponsible enough to drive drunk. (Yes, yes, I know MADD is considered a prohibition organization and people argue that the BAC limit is too low in some places. Don't fucking drive drunk, k?)
So, no, it's not a problem that our reaction is to outlaw it and write tickets. It SHOULD be outlawed, tickets SHOULD be written, and we should continue to turn the screws on people who do fiddle with their phones while driving because it is not okay to use a mobile device while driving.
Turn off the phone when you drive. You'll live.