When you lay down in bed at night and think over your day, you may consider some of the risky or dangerous things you did. Maybe you were putting up Christmas lights on a wobbly ladder or jay-walked across a busy street. Chances are, however, you haven’t even considered the most dangerous thing you do practically every day: driving or riding in a car.
Every day 3,287 fatalities occur in car accidents, making it the single most dangerous thing that any American does on a daily basis. Of all the accidents that happen every day, upwards of 25% is a result of distracted driving. With the advent of technologies that make communication easier than ever, the number of distracted driving accidents has gone up profoundly.
This may lead you to wonder how companies that are producing these technologies are responding. Are they using distracted driving data to come up with better and safer means of using their devices? Or are they sticking to the business as usual plan, regardless of the cost?
Impacts of Distracted Driving
In the grand scheme of things, there are three categories of distracted driving behaviors:
- Visual: Looking away from the road for reasons such as checking on children in the backseat or reading a text message
- Cognitive: Losing driving focus by doing things such as having a conversation with a passenger, getting lost in an audiobook, or talking on the phone
- Manual: Literally taking your hands off the wheel to do something such as reach into a bag or open a food container
Regardless of which type of distracted driving is occurring, a number of psychological exams indicate they decrease reaction time enough to be comparable to driving drunk. This is part of the reason that texting while driving is frequently referred to as modern drunk driving. In fact, texting is one of the leading concerns of those that are attempting to combat distracted driving-related accidents.
According to some experts, new apps and smartphone games have increased the likelihood of young adults being distracted while in a vehicle. Apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, or Pokemon Go have been singled out in specific accidents that have made it to court. Ultimately, for many young adults, the fear of missing out on social situations outweighs the need to hold off on responding and getting to a destination safely.
An Impending Response
Given this information, many argue that there is a need for app developers to incorporate safe driving rules into their programs. Others contend that it is the responsibility of the driver to responsibly use these apps.
Fortunately, many companies both in the tech and vehicle manufacturing worlds are taking advantage of data analytics to gain a greater understanding of where changes can be made to improve safety without completely ruining the experience. This information can help them decide on the most efficient and economical route for new developments.
For example, many car manufacturers are capitalizing on large pools of data available to design safer cars. One way that distracted driving could be reduced is through the development of safe autonomous vehicles that don’t require a human driver to successfully make it to a specific destination. Others involve using AI to limit the risks to drivers using mobile phones while on the road.
New Tech on the Horizon
There are also a bunch of ideas that could help limit the ability of people to use their phones while driving over a certain speed. For example, some phone companies are enabling the use of apps to block texting while driving. In many of these, phones will collect messages and simply not deliver them until the car has reached a low enough speed. In others, messages come through, but an auto-reply tells the sender that the phone owner is currently driving.
One app, known as DriveSafe has both Android and iPhone versions. In the Android version, only calls to emergency hotlines or pre-designated numbers are allowed to be made if the vehicle is moving faster than 5 miles per hour. Calls can still be made in the iPhone version, but alerts are sent to the designated parent phone, and that phone can shut off the other one for a certain time period.
Although likely frustrating to many teenagers, many do recognize the dangers of using their smartphones while on the road. Implementing these changes may even take some of the pressure to respond off young drivers and allow them to spend more time focusing on driving and getting where they are going in a safe manner.
Distracted driving is a significant problem in today’s American society. Distracted drivers cause more accidents than drunk drivers, especially among younger demographics. Because of these issues, a number of companies are compiling distracted driving data to inform their decisions and find ways to make their products safer.
