'Driver mode': An answer to distracted driver fatalities?

Crashes caused by distracted driving spiked in 2015. The Department of Transportation hopes a distraction-limiting 'driver mode' for cellphones may provide part of the solution.

|
Rich Pedroncelli/AP
A driver uses her mobile phone while sitting in traffic in Sacramento, Calif.

With crashes caused by distracted driving on the rise, the Department of Transportation hopes cellphone makers can help.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released voluntary guidelines for companies that make mobile devices. One recommendation is a “driver mode” that drivers could activate, turning off some apps while the vehicle is in motion. Another suggestion is to facilitate “pairing” between mobile devices and cars to make hands-free phone use more convenient.

These guidelines are designed to reduce fatalities caused by distracted driving, which is becoming an increasing challenge. Potential solutions like pairing systems, which let drivers use voice control on their phones, are already being implemented, while autonomous cars – which could take driver error out of the equation – are progressing. Cooperation between government and industry is also a welcome sign.

"With driver distraction one of the factors behind the rise of traffic fatalities, we are committed to working with the industry to ensure that mobile devices are designed to keep drivers' eyes where they belong – on the road," Mark Rosekind, NHTSA Administrator, said in statement.

Ten percent of traffic fatalities in 2015 involved distracted drivers, according to data released in November. That number is 8.8 percent higher than the previous year – and existing hands-free technologies don’t seem to be addressing the problem.

“It’s the cognitive workload on your brain that’s the problem,” explained Deborah Hersman, the president of the nonprofit National Safety Council and the former chairwoman of the federal National Transportation Safety Board, in an interview with The New York Times.

She cautioned, however, that these technologies could become counterproductive, encouraging people to spend even more time using their phones while driving.

And the trend continues: road fatalities rose 10.4 percent during the first half of 2016, NHTSA said.

For NHTSA, the best answer would be for cellphone makers to develop technology that automatically turns off certain phone functions – like texting – while a vehicle is in motion. Until that technology is available, however, they say a user-activated “driver mode” that disables apps could be the next best thing.

Integrating phone functions with cars may be one way to keep drivers’ eyes on the road. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are specifically designed to minimize distractions while maintaining key functions. New cars often come with these capabilities installed.

Future solutions may include a system to detect distracted drivers, such as the one General Motors piloted in 2014, and autonomous cars. The latter, currently being pioneered by tech companies like Tesla and Google, may ultimately eliminate the need for drivers, and with it the possibility for driver error.

The NHTSA is currently taking public comments about the new guidelines as it decides whether or not to implement them. Even if put in place, automobile and cellphone makers would not be legally bound to follow the recommendations.

Material from the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Driver mode': An answer to distracted driver fatalities?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2016/1202/Driver-mode-An-answer-to-distracted-driver-fatalities
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe