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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

#31

Post by nilved »

et-al wrote: post #12

As an aside, sometimes I wonder about how much more efficient we are today due to smartphones. Places where we've lost time: - at the stoplight, the driver in front of you is too busy looking down to notice the light has changed - in the bathroom, people check social media on the toilet - on the sidewalk, folks walk slower because they're pre-occupied with texting - meeting up with friends, it's more acceptable to be…

If those people weren't reading news or playing games on the toilet, they would be reading shampoo bottles. In periods of downtime people need something to do and smartphones can make that time more effective (when not used to look at cats.)

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

#32

Post by tzs »

JauntyHatAngle wrote: post #18
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.

We should also ban people talking to their passengers.

Talking to passengers is not the same as talking to someone on a phone when it comes to distraction, because passengers are in the car with you. The conversation with a passenger adjusts to take into account driving conditions.

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

#33

Post by Glide »

JauntyHatAngle wrote: post #18
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.

We should also ban people talking to their passengers.

I remember there were recommendations for new teen drivers to not have passengers.

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

#34

Post by m3rc »

niftich wrote: post #29

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. Luck…

I can't stand touchscreen systems. Instead of a single physical switch to turn AC on or off it's two latency laden taps. Part of it's menu design but I can't help but feel like it's always gonna happen with touchscreen centric designs.

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

#36

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#37

Post by Cyph0n »

aswanson wrote: post #27
Cyph0n wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree completely, but the human factor will only be removed once we have fully autonomous vehicles. Until then, we need humans to operate vehicles; this is the base case.

Now, do smartphones make humans worse at driving, or does their use while driving still result in the base case? My argument is that smartphone use does in fact significantly worsen a human's ability to drive properly. As a result, I believe that, for the time being, we need to somehow tackle the issue of smartphone use while operating a vehicle.

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

#38

Post by finid »

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?

You have to address the root cause - humans, because before smartphones and their apps, it was being distracted while fiddling with CD/tape players.

Eating and applying makeup (women) also contributed.

Humans have to recognize that driving demands 100% of their attention.

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

#39

Post by tzs »

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.

Hands free doesn't really offer an advantage over hands on as far as distractions go:

https://www.distraction.gov/downloads/pdfs/the-impact-of-han...

http://www.nsc.org/DistractedDrivingDocuments/Cognitive-Dist...

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36475180

http://www.nsc.org/learn/NSC-Initiatives/Pages/distracted-dr...

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

#40

Post by giancarlostoro »

niftich wrote: post #29

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. Luck…

One thing I miss is my iPod Classic. I used to listen to music in my car and I would feel for the buttons to skip songs. Of course if I needed a newer playlist I would have to wait till the car wasn't moving (red light), now in my newer car I have bluetooth and thankfully it has buttons for skip in the steering wheel. My iPoc Classic is dead though, so I am forced to use my phone, which I wish someone would come out with a phone that had media buttons on the side or back, I get it, there's a touch screen and all, but when I'm driving I don't want my eyes off the road. That or a case that includes bluetooth enabled buttons for skipping through songs would be neat.
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