Univ of Utah studies find up to 27 seconds of mental distraction for drivers after using new hands-free technologies

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

GRA

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
14,018
Location
East side of San Francisco Bay
Via GCC:
Univ of Utah studies find up to 27 seconds of mental distraction for drivers after using new hands-free technologies
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/10/20151023-utah.html

Potentially unsafe mental distractions for drivers can persist for as long as 27 seconds after dialing, changing music or sending a text using voice commands, according to a pair of new studies for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety by University of Utah researchers.

The researchers discovered the residual effects of mental distraction while comparing new hands-free technologies in ten 2015 vehicles and three types of smartphones. The analysis found that all systems studied increased mental distraction to potentially unsafe levels. The systems that performed best generally had fewer errors, required less time on task and were relatively easy to use.

One of the studies showed that it is highly distracting to use hands-free voice commands to dial phone numbers, call contacts, change music and send texts with Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri and Google Now smartphone personal assistants, though Google Now was a bit less distracting than the others.

The other study examined voice-dialing, voice-contact calling and music selection using in-vehicle information or “infotainment” systems in 10 model-year 2015 vehicles. Three were rated as moderately distracting, six as highly distracting and the system in the 2015 Mazda 6 as very highly distracting.

The results raise new and unexpected concerns regarding the use of phones and vehicle information systems while driving. This research represents the third phase of the Foundation’s comprehensive investigation into cognitive distraction, which shows that new hands-free technologies can mentally distract drivers even if their eyes are on the road and their hands are on the wheel. . . .
H'mm, a little 'Roadhouse Blues' flashback there, but I digress. There's much more in the article, including comparative ratings of various companies' systems, NissanConnect among others. This is why I don't use cell phones in cars and prefer physical buttons and knobs positionable by feel to touch screens and voice commands.
 
Thanks for this! Wish people kept in mind how easy it is to kill people by simply not paying enough attention for a few seconds (and for having less attention for several seconds more.)

Also wish it was culturally unacceptable to have headphones in while driving. It's illegal, but so is rape - the culture needs to change.

Cheers,
Tal
 
It would be much more helpful to have a 'median distraction time' than the old "Up to...". I'd guess that the XM touch screen distracts me for roughly 3-5 seconds, and the phone screen for two or three times as long. 27 seconds is what I'd expect if the car actually let me tune in new stations and add them while driving.
 
To absolutely no surprise:
California OTS observational study finds driver cell phone use up despite dangers
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/06/20160622-ots.html

Despite the well-known dangers of distracted driving, the number of California drivers who use mobile devices while they drive is on the rise. In a study conducted by the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) in April 2016, at least 12.8% of California drivers were observed using a mobile device during the day, up from 9.2% in 2015 and eclipsing the previous high of 10.8% in 2013. Due to the difficulty of observing mobile device use in a vehicle, these figures are considered minimums, with actual usage likely several points higher. . . .

California and many other states observed National Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) and hundreds of other law enforcement agencies conducted educational and enforcement efforts. The CHP alone organized more than 300 educational presentations and issued 13,496 citations for distracted driving violations. . . .

From 2013 to 2015, the number of drivers killed or injured in collisions in which distracted driving was a factor increased every year, from 10,162 in 2013, to 10,548 in 2014, and to 11,090 in 2015. . . .

  • Other findings in the observational survey:

    Though nearly all types of usage were up, typing and posting increased by more than one-third.

    The highest observed electronic device use and the fastest increase in usage is in urban areas, at 9.4%.

    Electronic device use during rush hours increased by 71% in 2016.

    The percentage of 16-24 year-olds talking on hand-held cell phones increased from less than 1% every year since 2012 to more than 2% in 2016.

    Southern California drivers hold the phone to their ear at a rate double (3.8%) or more that of Central California drivers (1.9%) and Northern California drivers (1.4%).
Yet another reason for Norcal natives to look down on those living on the wrong side of the Tehachapis ;) Not that there's anything funny about it. Of course, the only reason I'm not seriously injured or killed about once every 10 days in the Bay Area while walking or riding my bike is because I'm watching for the boneheads, and I've even seen a local cop chatting away on a handheld phone while driving on duty, so it's not as if we're without sin.
 
I do wish the nav screen would bluetooth to the phone, for google maps. That would be so much less distracting than looking at the phone, while driving. This will only be done via 3rd party. The car companies make too much money selling GPS systems.
 
Via GCC:
Study finds hands-free just as distracting as handheld mobile phone use behind the wheel
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/12/20161228-qut.html

Talking hands-free on a mobile phone while driving is just as distracting as a conversation using a hand-held phone, according to a recent study by researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia. . . .

  • Mobile phone distracted driving (MPDD) is an ongoing challenge for transport network managers. … Different studies report varying effects of MPDD on crash risk. An epidemiological study found that mobile phone conversations increase crash risk by a factor of four. Asbridge et al. reported that the odds of a culpable crash increase by 70% when the driver is using mobile phone. In the United States, an study of police crash reports showed that mobile phone distraction resulted in 18% of fatal crashes and 5% of injury crashes. Epidemiological studies and police reported data, however, often suffer from underreporting problems and do not record the exposure to mobile phone use, and therefore these estimates may be inaccurate. . . .

    —Oviedo-Trespalacios et al. . . .

The study found that the reaction time of drivers participating in either a hand-held or hands-free conversation was more than 40% longer than those not using a phone.

  • In real terms this equates to a delayed response distance of about 11m for a vehicle travelling at 40km/h [25 mph]. This shows hands-free and hand-held phone conversations while driving have similar detrimental effects in responding to a very common peripheral event of a pedestrian entering a crossing from the footpath.

    —Dr. Haque. . . .

    Dr. Haque said it was the cognitive load required to hold a conversation that was the distraction, not whether or not the driver was holding a phone.
    • It appears that the increased brain power required to hold a phone conversation can alter a drivers’ visual scanning pattern. In other words, the human brain compensates for receiving increased information from a mobile phone conversation by not sending some visual information to the working memory, leading to a tendency to ‘look at’ but not ‘see’ objects by distracted drivers.

      The distraction of a mobile phone conversation is not the same as an in-car conversation with a passenger because the non-driver can alter their dialogue based on the driving environment, for example stop talking when approaching a complex driving situation.

      —Dr. Haque

    Dr. Haque said the distraction of mobile phone use also had an impact on driver braking behavior; distracted drivers on average reduced the speed of their vehicle faster and more abruptly than non-distracted drivers, exhibiting excess braking
    • While the driver is likely to be compensating for the perceived risk of talking and driving, the abrupt or excessive braking by distracted drivers poses a safety concern to following vehicles. Again these findings highlight a need to consider mobile phone use laws in response to interventions to reduce rear-end crashes.

      —Dr. Haque
To summarize, get off the phone (infotainment system etc.) and drive the damned car! :evil:
 
Via GCC:
Study finds wide spread of times for resuming control from highly automated vehicle in non-critical scenarios; challenges for designers
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/01/20170126-tor.html

. . . Now, in a new open-access study published in the journal Human Factors, University of Southampton Alexander Eriksson and Neville Stanton report that under noncritical conditions, drivers needed 1.9 to 25.7 seconds to resume control in a highly automated vehicle. The large range reflects a variety of driver behavior and environmental conditions. The challenge for designers thus becomes accommodating the full range of response times rather than limiting design parameters to mean or median transition times in the switch to and from automated and manual driving modes, the authors suggested.

In the study, the authors observed 26 men and women (ages 20-52) engaged in simulated driving at 70 mph with and without a non-driving secondary (i.e., distracting) task and recorded the response time as the drivers took over or relinquished control of the automated system.

A takeover request was issued at random intervals ranging from 30 to 45 seconds during normal motorway-driving conditions. The authors found that drivers engaged in a secondary task prior to a control transition took longer to respond, posing a safety hazard. The control transition times were substantially longer than those reported in the peer-reviewed literature. . . .
In addition to the above, which was expected, I learned the meaning of a new word: "platykurtic". :lol:
 
I'm glad to see the "hands free" safety BS getting an honest airing.

As an aside, my wife loves to listen to audio books on long drives and has recently come to realize just how distracted a driver she becomes.
 
Let's agree on something... the term "distracted" is not a measurable term... We have been listening to the radio, music, news, and talk radio since there have been radios on cars... Saying that listening to the radio or audio tapes is dangerous is BS...
The REAL danger are the stupid people who drive on the highway, or even regular roads while looking down away from the road to text, dial, or work their ever-growing dashboard TV screens... They kill people because they are moving at highway speeds and are not looking at the road for long periods of time.

That original article was really bad research that people will latch on. I am sure that some have found that water and air are bad for your health...
 
powersurge said:
Let's agree on something... the term "distracted" is not a measurable term... We have been listening to the radio, music, news, and talk radio since there have been radios on cars... Saying that listening to the radio or audio tapes is dangerous is BS...
The REAL danger are the stupid people who drive on the highway, or even regular roads while looking down away from the road to text, dial, or work their ever-growing dashboard TV screens... They kill people because they are moving at highway speeds and are not looking at the road for long periods of time.

That original article was really bad research that people will latch on. I am sure that some have found that water and air are bad for your health...
Join the campaign to ban Dihydrogen Monoxide!
Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the highly reactive hydroxyl radical, a species shown to mutate DNA, denature proteins, disrupt cell membranes, and chemically alter critical neurotransmitters. The atomic components of DHMO are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol. . . .
http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

;)
 
A follow-on to the study in the topic title, via GCC:
Univ. of Utah study finds many infotainment systems too distracting to be used when vehicle in motion
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/10/20171005-utah.html

Many of the infotainment features in most 2017 vehicles are so distracting they should not be enabled while a vehicle is in motion, according to a new study by University of Utah researchers. The study, led by University of Utah Psychology Professor David L. Strayer, found In-Vehicle Information Systems take drivers’ attention off the road for too long to be safe.

The study, conducted the study for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, reviewed infotainment systems in 30 different 2017 vehicles. Participants were required to engage in four types of tasks using voice, touch screen and other interactive technologies. The tasks were to make a call, send a text message, tune the radio or program navigation while driving.

The team developed an advanced rating scale to measure which tasks were most distracting, how they affect visual, cognitive and manual demands on drivers and whether interactions were easier to perform in some vehicles than others. The scale ranged from low to very high demand; low demand is equivalent to listening to the radio, while very high demand is equivalent to balance a checkbook in your head while driving, according to AAA.

The researchers found drivers using features such as voice-based and touch-screen technology took their hands, eyes and mind off the road for more than 24 seconds to complete tasks.

Previous research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that the risk of a crash doubles when a driver takes his or her eyes off the road for two seconds. . . .

In the new study, programming navigation was the most distracting task—taking drivers on average 40 seconds to complete. When driving at 25 mph, a driver can travel the length of four football fields during the time it could take to enter a destination in navigation—all while distracted from the important task of driving.

Text messaging was the second most distracting task; audio entertainment and calling and dialing were the easiest to perform and did not significantly differ in overall demand.

The researchers also found surprisingly large differences between vehicles as far as workload required to operate the systems. None of the 30 vehicle infotainment systems produced low demand, while 23 systems generated high or very high levels of demand on drivers.

The researchers found that most infotainment systems tested could easily be made safer by simply following clearly stated federal recommendations such as locking out text messaging, social media and programming navigation while the car is in motion. In 2012, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a set of voluntary safety guidelines advising automakers to block access to tasks when vehicles are not parked. . . .

There are charts showing the vehicles tested as well as their distraction levels.

The full AAA report (104 pages) can be found here:
Visual and
Cognitive Demands
of Using In-Vehicle
Infotainment Systems
https://publicaffairsresources.aaa.biz/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CDST_Final_Report.pdf
 
Thanks for this! Wish people kept in mind how easy it is to kill people by simply not paying enough attention for a few seconds (and for having less attention for several seconds more.) :D :D :D
 
Back
Top