Biggest News from Detroit Car Show: Driving’s Become a Distraction

January 15th, 2010. By Hunter West

Get ready for a new round of lawsuits everybody. Because the nation’s roadways are about to become a lot more dangerous. 

Consider this statement from an automotive industry engineer: 

“Customers are expecting more and more, especially business people who expect to find in the car what they find in their smart phone,” said Mathias Halliger, the chief engineer for Audi’s multimedia interface systems, in comments published in the New York Times last week. “We should give them the same or a better experience.” 

Experience? 

Really… 

Let’s get one thing straight. Driving is not a video game. Driving is not a virtual ‘experience’. Driving is being in control of a hurtling goliath of metal weighing several tons hurtling down a road shared by other vehicles, or pedestrians hurrying across an intersection. Kids on bikes. Old men with their walkers. 

It’s bad enough that car stereos are more complex, now that you can plug your iPod or mp3 player into the system. Now there are GPS systems that serve to distract drivers even further from the task at hand—which is driving safely. 

Many states and cities have banned talking on a cell phone unless a Bluetooth or other hands-free device is used. Texting while driving is so stupid; its stupidity is a foregone conclusion. That’s been banned too, in many areas across the country. As the bans step up, safety advocates have been breathing a sigh of relief. 

Well for them—and for the rest of us—this horror movie has just become a whole lot scarier, with automotive manufacturers falling all over themselves to put Wi-Fi in your car, along with the color screens and the various bells and whistles to go along with it. 

Ford, which won some nice hardware at the Detroit Auto Show this week (and deservedly so), is attempting some modicum of safety. Ford’s new ‘MyFord’ system lets the driver adjust temperature settings or call a friend while the car is in motion, while its built-in Web browser works only when the car is parked. 

“We are trying to make that driving experience one that is very engaging,” said Jim Buczkowski, the director of global electrical and electronics systems engineering at Ford. “We also want to make sure it is safer and safer. It is part of what our DNA will be going forward.” 

Jaguar, for example, is working on a two-screen system that can simultaneously show a map to a driver and a movie to the front-seat passenger. 

I’ve got a better idea. Put that map over to the movie screen, let the passenger navigate and let the driver bloody well drive the car. 

There is little doubt that technology is changing the way we do lots of things—and technology is hard to ignore. It’s also true that with more cars clogging an antiquated network of highways more drivers (those who actually have to commute, as opposed to telecommute) are spending more time in their cars. To be sure when you’re stuck in gridlock it would be handy to call up the Wi-Fi and get some work done while you’re sitting there. 

But human nature, long since locked in our multi-tasking ways, will find a way to take advantage of an available system while driving. 

And even as automakers, such as Ford, attempt to build safety features into their vehicles, industry spokespersons have said that it will largely fall upon the driver to police himself. With Audi for example, there is a disclaimer that pops up on the screen when the system is turned on. 

“Please only use the online services when traffic conditions allow you to do so safely.” 

Boy, I feel better now. 

It doesn’t help that there’s an ad running now, on television. I don’t know if it’s an ad for a smart phone, or an automotive manufacturer, or a mobile service provider. But what it shows is an open convertible being driven down the road on a nice sunny day…the girls are out for a drive. All ‘the girls’ but one, as it turns out, because she’s at the doctors getting an ultrasound. She’s with child, you see. TWO, in fact. TWINS! 

The mother-to-be captures the video of the ultrasound and sends it to her friend riding in the passenger seat in a fully integrated car. There is no dialogue in the spot, but from an overhead camera you can guess what goes on. 

Passenger: “Oh! She’s having twins! She sent me the video on my phone!”

Driver: “Oh, I wish I could see!” 

Passenger: “Here, let me email it to the car…” 

A split second later the video appears on the dashboard screen. The passenger points to it excitedly. Sure enough, the driver takes her eyes off the road and ogles at the images while the car is still moving. 

Disclaimers my ass. That, my friends, will be the reality of video screens, and Wi-Fi and interactive everything in the car. Drivers will be spending less and less time focused exclusively at the task at hand, while they do something else. 

The sad thing is that it’s not that they’re doing some secondary thing while driving. It will be more like driving as a secondary distraction while we’re focused on something else. 

That’s how people get killed, folks. 

You can’t really blame the automotive manufacturers. It’s a competitive field, and when one goes, so do they all. When color TV came into vogue, pity any station that decided B&W was just fine, thank you and resisted the change. When you get an industry now describing cars as “probably the most immersive consumer electronics device we have,” pity the company that decides to buck the trend. 

Besides, there’s nothing stopping them. There’s no one in the regulatory camp prepared to intervene. No one, at the federal or state (or even global) level is saying, “No…you CAN’T do this.” 

Ford and Audi say they extensively tested and tweaked their systems to cut down on the amount of time that drivers spend looking at screens. Brad Stertz, a spokesman for Audi of America, said that this testing was voluntary. 

“Because a lot of this is so new, there’s not a ton of regulatory testing that’s required, like would be required with crash testing,” Stertz said. He added that the company was also hoping to avoid legal troubles, saying, “It could be a legal issue if someone gets into a car accident and the cops blame the car company for a system that’s too elaborate.” 

Bingo. Note to lawyers. Hire more staff. 

Researchers at Harvard estimated that motorists talking on cell phones caused 2,600 fatal accidents and 570,000 accidents involving injuries every year. Oh and that report, by the way, is from 2003—well before texting, and the kind of mobile device multitasking we all indulge in today. 

Safety advocates are having a field day with this. “Carmakers assume, as most consumers do, that most cars are alike in terms of line quality and safety, and all the old attributes,” Art Spinella, an auto industry analyst with CNW Research, said in comments published in the New York Times. “Now the way to distinguish yourself is through higher tech. 

“But they’re totally ignoring one of the key issues of the future of driving, which is distracted driving.” 

Nicholas Ashford, a professor of technology and policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is even more blunt. He told the New York Times on January 6^th that the new efforts to marry cars and computers is, “unfortunately and sadly, a continuation of the pursuit of profit over safety—for both drivers and pedestrians. 

“This is irresponsible at best and pernicious at worst.” 

For his part Ray LaHood, the federal transportation secretary, was quoted as saying the companies were on the wrong track. 

“The idea they’re going to load automobiles up with all kinds of ways to be distracted—that’s not the direction we’re going, and I will speak out against it,” he said. 

I’m afraid it is going to take more than speaking out. It will take a concerted and proactive putting-down-of-the-foot on the part of regulators to say, “no, you can’t do this.” 

Manufacturers should not be allowed to consider a multi-ton hunk of metal and fuel hurtling along at 60 miles per hour within feet of other cars and unprotected pedestrians as “an immersive consumer electronics device.” I mean, oh my God. This isn’t a video game. This isn’t a home theatre. It’s a CAR. And they should not be manufactured with this stuff. 

Failing that, regulators could say, “okay, so go ahead and put a car with those kinds of gizmos in the showroom. Go ahead, and sell them to the people. 

“But they will not be allowed on the road.” 

Fat chance of that happening either. This is America after all, the Land of the Free and free enterprise. Even if it’s stupid. Even if it kills. 

When our kids grow up and are out of the house, I will keep one car just for drives to the country. The rest of the time I’ll take the bus. 

The roads are not safe, anymore.  

Tags: Audi, Auto Accidents, Car Accidents, Car Crash, Ford

This was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Accidents, Defective Products . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.