DETROIT: In the midst of a flood of technologies aimed at turning the automobile into the "infomobile," car company executives attending the 2000 Convergence Transportation Electronics Association meeting were voicing considerable concern about the resulting safety issues-and for very good reason.
Various papers and studies presented at the meeting in Cobo Hall here contained some of the first hard evidence in support of the anecdotal-based feeling that more driver distractions will lead to more crashes.
Statistics by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) already lay the blame for more than 1.5 million crashes a year in the U.S. (which is about a quarter of all crashes), and that is mostly for the distractions we've had around for decades-smoking, eating, applying makeup, looking at fold-up maps, and so on.
The newest distractions appear to be making it worse, and we can likely expect more with the coming waves of in-vehicle technology, says Paul Green of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMRTI).
"Driver interface-induced crashes have been shown to occur in quantity, for mobile phones and navigations systems," Green says in his study. From that, it follows that other telematics equipment now being developed "could also lead to crashes because the driving environment, drivers, and the tasks performed with new devices are similar to those for phones and navigation systems."
Various papers and studies presented at the meeting in Cobo Hall here contained some of the first hard evidence in support of the anecdotal-based feeling that more driver distractions will lead to more crashes.
Statistics by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) already lay the blame for more than 1.5 million crashes a year in the U.S. (which is about a quarter of all crashes), and that is mostly for the distractions we've had around for decades-smoking, eating, applying makeup, looking at fold-up maps, and so on.
The newest distractions appear to be making it worse, and we can likely expect more with the coming waves of in-vehicle technology, says Paul Green of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMRTI).
"Driver interface-induced crashes have been shown to occur in quantity, for mobile phones and navigations systems," Green says in his study. From that, it follows that other telematics equipment now being developed "could also lead to crashes because the driving environment, drivers, and the tasks performed with new devices are similar to those for phones and navigation systems."