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Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

nytimes.com

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Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#21

Post by bbarn »

I'm of the belief that while phones have contributed, it's just not hard enough to drive anymore. Try driving a manual shift, non power steering vehicle some time and using your phone. That's the world the roads were built for, not this ultra easy, power assisted, auto-speed control, auto-lane control world where you don't even feel the speed difference between 60 and 90.

I used to hear people say they couldn't drive without the radio because they "needed the distraction". I never got that. Isn't driving supposed to be the only thing you're doing while driving?

All the hands free apps in the world can't solve split focus. Even a bluetooth, voice activated system requires you to commit brain cycles to the conversation that's coming through that will take away from your ability to drive.

We sit and argue about how bad context switching is, how important it is in our careers as developers to focus on what we're doing, then we build apps and devices that are competing to be the best attention stealing devices they can be.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#22

Post by maxerickson »

ams6110 wrote: post #20
Animats wrote: post #15

We need automatic driving so people can remain connected. Volvo has the right vision. See their commercial.[1] (\Volvo is about to be the first with production automatic driving. Next year, Volvo will put 100 self-driving cars on the road with real customers driving. They'll only self-drive on certain roads in Gothenburg at first. The user is not required to watch the road, and if anything goes wrong, Volvo accepts f…

if anything goes wrong, Volvo accepts full responsibility Nice comfort I'm sure as you lie in your casket.

There's an old saying "Put your money where your mouth is".

I think the idea of mentioning it is that it is a comfort as you hand control of the car over to the automated system.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#23

Post by dsfyu404ed »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #10
chad_oliver wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New Zealand too. If you want to make calls while driving, you have to have a hands-free system. It baffles my mind that there are countries in which people can legally interact with their phone while driving.

I'm surprised people are allowed to use their phones at all; there is a study showing talking on a hands free causes the same attention impairment level as someone under the influence of alcohol.

I'm sure studies funded by the tobacco companies in the 1960s had equally believable outcomes.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#24

Post by michaelbuckbee »

ams6110 wrote: post #20
Animats wrote: post #15

We need automatic driving so people can remain connected. Volvo has the right vision. See their commercial.[1] (\Volvo is about to be the first with production automatic driving. Next year, Volvo will put 100 self-driving cars on the road with real customers driving. They'll only self-drive on certain roads in Gothenburg at first. The user is not required to watch the road, and if anything goes wrong, Volvo accepts f…

if anything goes wrong, Volvo accepts full responsibility Nice comfort I'm sure as you lie in your casket.

You make a fair point, but I think you do have to consider that this is already the case in automotive manufacture. At any given point there are a range of cars on the road that have a variety of safety features differentiated on cost: antilock brakes, front and side airbags, "adaptive" cruise control that won't let you plow into a car in front of you etc. Never mind all of the more mundane mechanical fasteners, fire suppression, etc.

This isn't a new reality where there is some degree of engineering culpability inherent on auto makers, it's a moving of the goal posts.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#25

Post by twblalock »

ams6110 wrote: post #20
Animats wrote: post #15

We need automatic driving so people can remain connected. Volvo has the right vision. See their commercial.[1] (\Volvo is about to be the first with production automatic driving. Next year, Volvo will put 100 self-driving cars on the road with real customers driving. They'll only self-drive on certain roads in Gothenburg at first. The user is not required to watch the road, and if anything goes wrong, Volvo accepts f…

if anything goes wrong, Volvo accepts full responsibility Nice comfort I'm sure as you lie in your casket.

Most accidents don't result in death. Volvo's liability coverage would be a nice comfort if you survived an accident and the people your autonomous car hit are trying to sue you.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#26

Post by squeaky-clean »

yk wrote: post #11

What does a journalist think when he writes something like "biggest spike in traffic death in 50 years"? The NYT even has a nice plot, that clearly shows that there are two, perhaps three significant, spikes in traffic death, and overall traffic death were reduced to a third of the late seventies. I mean I just eyeball the plot, but to me it seems the story is that there is a plateau since ~2010.

> After steady declines over the last four decades, highway fatalities last year recorded the largest annual percentage increase in 50 years.

So I guess the title makes sense, but I think it's extremely misleading.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#27

Post by aswanson »

Cyph0n wrote: post #16
finid wrote: post #2

Blame apps? No, that's secondary. Blame smartphones. Perhaps that too is secondary. Blame humans.

Smartphones, and mobile phones in general, make drivers less attentive to external events while driving. It was fine before that, so I don't see why you think we should be blaming humans?

Because it wasn't fine before that. Most drivers take irrational risks, drive with zero margin, and are generally fucking stupid behind the wheel. The other half are even worse. Seriously, there needs to be far more restrictions and punitive damages to bad drivers. With all the media attention on terrorism, there are 10 times as many deaths in the US every year due to stupid drivers as there were on 9-11.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#28

Post by galago »

chad_oliver wrote: post #5
the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #3

The UK, Germany and Austria have banned the use of phones in cars entirely with a whitelist of permitted uses (like passively using it for navigation). I am pretty sure that is something that is happening all over Europe now.

New Zealand too. If you want to make calls while driving, you have to have a hands-free system. It baffles my mind that there are countries in which people can legally interact with their phone while driving.

I commute partially on foot in Massachusetts, and it can be terrifying to see people making turns with the phone held up to the side of their face.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#29

Post by niftich »

Apps are a plausible contributor. But I also noticed that some new cars ship with infotainment systems that consist solely of a (bad) touchscreen; as new cars slowly replace old ones, the number of cars with actual physical buttons for the music player or radio is dwindling. This is awful because the lack of physical buttons prevents the tactile feedback needed to operate the device without having to look at it.

Luckily, some manufacturers go the other route and put music controls as paddles on the steering wheel, which is amazingly useful.

Also, the widespread 'safety feature' of cars refusing to pair bluetooth while in motion may actually defeat the point. If one forgets to pair in the beginning, they may just keep using the phone when the need arises -- when a notification arrives, the phone rings, or they remember they want to stream some music.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#30

Post by tajen »

miaumiau2 wrote: post #14
toomuchtodo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised people are allowed to use their phones at all; there is a study showing talking on a hands free causes the same attention impairment level as someone under the influence of alcohol.

So you are saying, talking to a passenger "causes the same attention impairment level as someone under the influence of alcohol."? For sure there is a distraction, but it is definitely not on the level you described.

Mythbusters tested it! http://news.stanford.edu/thedish/2015/08/21/mythbusters-test... and https://youtu.be/t8LuM92Twm8?t=210 (see the conclusion at 3:28).

Result: Driving drunk, with a cellphone or with a hands-free phone were all equally dangerous. I'm as surprised as you must be.

They didn't test talking to a passenger, but I'm of the opinion that laws don't forbid what is de-facto considered as normal by most people. Besides, talking to a passenger isn't verifiable.

Last thing, I sure remember unfolding my map over the wheel on the highways, so despite what the police says about vocal GPS apps, they're still 100% better for me.

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