"There's all this stuff going on outside my vehicle, but then I have all this information on my phone. I'm having a hard time deciding which is more important." This was a 45 mph zone. Interestingly, today people were going under 70 mph for a change after seeing this. Will they remember? Of course not. Maybe, if he'd had auto pilot, his texting would not have been so rudely interrupted.
The scary thing about that picture is the path of impact seems to cross a bike lane, an intersection, and a sidewalk. Lucky if nobody was hurt. I hope nobody was hurt.
Yup. Crossed all three. And right in front of a fire station. No ambulance in sight. So driver was probably OK other than being shaken and probably very recently unemployed.
So yesterday we had 3-4 inches of snow. It froze oversight even though it wasn't supposed to. You would think that people would slow down? Nope. multiple accidents closing multiple lanes in multiple places across the Chicago area. And after they drive past a crash, pedal to the metal....
I don't understand why in a world where they haven't yet gotten all of the bugs out of AIRCRAFT autopilots that people think that it's a good idea in cars - but.....yeah. Sometimes Robbie The Robot does better than a human tool. Lawyers are going to solve this you know. Adults having a few too many pops used to be a fairly big deal, but still largely a civil infraction. Then? One too many drunk drivers squished one too many kids and Moms started getting MADD! It's going to happen with phones too, you know, because I guarantee you than somebody reading this is thinking...."Well yeah....but texting and driving isn't the SAME thing!!" and you know what? That's absolutely correct! Texting is worse....because at least it's possible that a drunk driver started out sober and then had their higher brain function impaired by alcohol. That happens a lot, which is why casinos always serve free alcohol to their suckers. However (Comma!!!) distracted drivers are betting OUR lives that they can do the stick and rudder thing while eating, reading, or poking on glass....and that's a form of selfish assholery that sometimes goes well beyond having one too many granola sodas at a baseball game. We all do it (distracted driving) to one degree or another because societal norms haven't moved enough to make texting drivers as disgusting as drunks on the road.....yet. Not enough mad moms.....yet. Meanwhile? Yes. Automation is cool.....just leave the steering wheel and the pedals in place with an override.....please. Nothing quite as spooky to me as an autopilot that won't STAY OFF. I'll take my chances with drunks and texters until they work it out with planes - and THEN wait for them to tell me how one expects to maintain the traffic separation on roads and highways that they demand for planes!
I believe systematic human-factors research in the 1990s or early 2000s showed that texting on a cell phone resulted in equal or more impairment than drunk driving studies had shown. My problem is that drunk driving was far more common in the late evening, weekends, and drinking days like December 30th, but texting is apparently occurring at any time of the day or night, and it is therefore much harder to plan driving times to avoid such dangerous drivers.
You don't even have to be texting. Just talking on a hands-free phone or voice recognition system on the car will make you less attentive to driving. In my old thread I described these research findings: See: Do you talk to your car or smartphone??? | PriusChat
I might be wrong, but I have never seen alerts pop up on my 11.6 screen. On MID, yes, but not on a larger screen. But I have the screen off most of the times, so it is possible it does show something.
Even without alert popping up, just the fact of looking down on the screen will take your eyes off the road. And if you have to select your favorite song from the un-scrollable list, it will definitely detract you, even though Toyota implemented it as a safety feature.
Our son's got a Mazda CX-5 with a screen. The few times I've driven it, I basically ignore the screen. The radio station it's on, fine, anything else involving the screen, fine-as-is.
