|
 But are they really a good idea?
Car companies answer with an emphatic yes. They say outsized
dashboard displays that behave more like smart phones will boost
revenue and attract buyers. And they also insist the new screens
will make driving less dangerous, because of well-integrated voice
controls and large touch screens that will keep drivers from
fumbling with more dangerous mobile phones.
But the increasingly elaborate screens have also sparked a broad
debate about how much technology is appropriate in a car.
"I think they (the screens) raise serious public safety questions,"
said Joe Simitian, the former California lawmaker who spearheaded
the state's laws on phone use while driving. "From a legislative
standpoint, this is going to be something legislators struggle with
for years to come."
“You can’t be looking at a screen and be looking at the road at the
same time,” said David Strayer, a professor of cognition and neural
science at the University of Utah, who has written several studies
on distracted driving. The screens “are enabling activities that
take your eyes off the road for longer than most safety advocates
would say is safe.”
 His research shows that reading the average text message—a function
some of the screens support—takes four seconds, far longer than what
he considers safe.
But for automakers and their customers, the souped-up screens are
proving irresistible.
In an Audi A3, for example, drivers who sync their phones with their
cars can check for mentions of themselves on Twitter and see those
tweets on their dashboards—although not their full Twitter streams.
They can upload photos taken on smart phones and request mapping to
the place the photo was taken. Text messages pop up on the
dashboard, in addition to being read out loud.
“If you don’t provide something that is useful, people will just use
their smartphones, and we all know that’s the biggest driver
distraction there is,” said Mark Dahncke, a spokesman for Audi.
Up to now, dashboard technology hasn’t factored highly into most car
buying decisions, but carmakers expect it to become increasingly
important over the next 3-5 years.
A recent study by the market research company J.D. Power found that
about 15 percent of consumers rule out buying a car if it lacks the
latest technology, compared with just 4 percent a year ago.
LITTLE REGULATION
Currently, dashboard displays are only lightly regulated. Many
states forbid the airing of non-navigational videos by drivers while
cars are in motion, except for safety video systems designed to help
with backing up and other tasks.
Federal motor vehicle standards stipulate only a few rules,
including that the brightness on displays be adjustable.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued
driver-distraction guidelines for dashboard displays in moving cars.
They advise against displays that include photographs or moving
images unrelated to driving, and suggest that drivers shouldn’t need
to tap a button or key more than six times to complete a task. But
so far, the guidelines are voluntary, with automakers under no
obligation to comply.
[to top of second column] |
The auto industry has issued voluntary guidelines of its own. But in
many cases, industry standards fall short of the government's. For
example, the industry guidelines say that drivers should be able to
complete tasks on the displays in a series of single glances that
generally take no more than 2 seconds each, for a total of 20
seconds. But the government guidelines advise that drivers should be
able to complete tasks in a series of 1.5 or 2 second glances, for a
total of no more than 12 seconds.
Some critics find even that standard too lax.
"It should be set up so people can do it in just four glances," says
Henry Jasny, vice president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto
Safety, a Washington, D.C.-based group funded by insurers and
others. His group has asked for the government guidelines to become
law, figuring that even imperfect mandatory rules would be better
than no requirements, and that during the rulemaking process, the
organization can fight for more stringent regulation.
Auto manufacturers are incorporating popular smartphone features
into displays in different ways.
Some, such as Hyundai, are simply making their displays compatible
with Android and iOS, the smartphone software from Google and Apple,
so drivers can see a bare-bones version of their phone on the
screen. Other companies, including Tesla, are creating elaborate
systems that don’t rely on syncing with phones, but replicate many
of the things consumers might use their phones to do, such as
checking for nearby restaurants.
Making the in-dash displays as responsive as possible with minimal
glances away from the road is a major goal, says Danny Shapiro,
senior director of automotive for Nvidia, a company that makes
hardware and software for displays featured in Audis and Teslas.
“What we’re doing is developing graphics that are intuitive, so you
can gesture or swipe or zoom,” he said. “Something that responds
like that, and is big, is much safer than a smartphone.”
So far, insurers haven’t taken a stand on the new souped-up
displays. A large, interactive display on the dashboard would
neither increase nor decrease policy rates, said a spokeswoman for
the Insurance Information Institute, unless it was considered
valuable enough to increase the risk of theft.
(Reporting by Sarah McBride and Paul Lienert; Editing by Sue Horton)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
