A "solution" to distracted driving?

[rhoenix]

NOVI, Michigan — Distracted driving kills more than 3,000 people each year in the United States, a figure that represents about 10 percent of all traffic fatalities. How many of those people die because they were fiddling with their phones or navigating their navigation systems isn’t clear, but no matter. The feds say they’ve got “the ultimate solution” for curbing the use of mobile devices while we’re mobile.

Nathaniel Beuse, associate administrator for vehicle safety research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says government regulation coupled with standards set by automakers and the electronics industry could reduce fatalities. He says we need “a technological solution, some sort of innovation” in which the device or the car would recognize when the driver is using a mobile device and deactivate it.

“This would be the ultimate solution,” he says.

Federal regulators want to make it impossible for you to send a text, update Facebook or surf Instagram while driving, a campaign that could have as big an impact on mobile phone manufacturers as automakers. This spring, the NHTSA and its parents at the Department of Transportation laid out — in a 281-page report (.pdf) — several guidelines for accomplishing this.

As we noted at the time, a key objective is limiting the amount of time a driver takes his eyes off the road or hands off the wheel, with a maximum of two seconds for each input and total of 12 seconds to complete a task. NHTSA wants automakers to make it impossible to enter text for messaging and internet browsing while the car is in motion, disable any kind of video functionality and prevent text-based information such as social media content or text messages from being displayed.

Beuse, speaking at the Telematics Detroit 2013 conference, says two paths could be taken to this destination. The first is less than feasible because it would require drivers to physically connect their smartphones or mobile devices to the vehicle’s embedded system, disabling functionality while the car is in motion. You can see the problem with that idea.

“[We would need] 100 percent compliance to get drivers to pair their phones,” Beuse said. If such integration isn’t user-friendly and dead simple, “[drivers] will be right back to using their handhelds.”

That makes the second idea far more viable: a proximity sensor, in the vehicle or the device, that recognizes when the driver is using the device and requires them to pass it off to a passenger. Think of a seatbelt chime, but more annoying.

This isn’t the first time NHTSA and the DOT have required companies to eliminate certain distracting features while driving. The most obvious example has been disabling video playback while the car is in motion. But Beuse admits the NHTSA must “figure out how to monitor compliance.” And this won’t just extend to automakers, but the automotive aftermarket that produces in-dash stereos with increasingly complex functionalities.

NHTSA and the DOT, led by outgoing honcho Ray LaHood, have made distracted driving a signature cause during the past four years. Although distracted driving is indeed a problem — the phenomenon accounted for 3,331 fatalities in 2011, up from 3,092 the year before — it’s hard to know just how many crashes and deaths resulted from the use of mobile devices behind the wheel.

“If you look at crash data, there are a number of crashes that are due to distracted driving,” Beuse says, but “our data is not refined enough to pinpoint [the exact cause of those] crashes.”

What’s going to be more difficult is to get what NHTSA wants: 100 percent compliance from automakers, consumer electronics companies, aftermarket manufacturers and the public.

“We can’t force consumers to pair their device to the vehicle,” Beuse says. “We need a technological solution.”

This... I cannot call a good idea. I get the problem, and I agree with the problem, but neither of these are remotely feasible as a solution.

[Comrade Tortoise]

I have started to measure these things in multiples of 9/11, and then using that whenever someone says "but fixing this is too expensive/hard/is violating my freedom".


In all seriousness though, there are some pretty simply solutions. Most phones come with native GPS these days and they already send and receive radio signals. A proximity sensor coupled with a motion tracker would be ideal and doable with software updates in existing mobile devices that happen automatically, and a device in newly manufactured cars.

The device would simply be a weak radio signal that emanates from the steering column. On the phone end, would be a program that recognizes that radio signal and then uses a simply algorithm

Is radio signal received at signal strength X indicating someone is in the driver's seat?
If no, status quo
If yes, is this device in motion?
If no, status quo
If yes, do not unlock screen.

And done. This would not require pairing with the vehicle. It could be done cheaply. Hell, it is simple enough that even older vehicles could have said radio devices installed quickly and easily. Ensuring compliance could be difficult on that last part, initially. However, if it is made part of vehicle safety inspections (in order to pass you need to have one of these installed, sort of like how all your tail lights have to work, or your horn) or something that gives say... a tax deduction or even a modest credit it might even become popular.

[General Havoc]

I already own a hands-free headset for use with my cell phone while driving, and now you're telling me I'm not allowed to use it at all? For the five million odd Californians who commute more than one and a half hours each way to work, that is simply not a feasible option.

It would also eliminate distracted driving if we fined the driver every time they turned their radio above a certain volume, or turned their head away from the road for more than two seconds using motion tracker software. Both of these are bad ideas too.

[Comrade Tortoise]

I might have missed it, but I saw nothing about the phone function. Just the text messaging, browsers etc.