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Automotive News & Views Should cell phone drivers be singled out?
3688 messages, Last post on Oct 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM
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On TV news program today, an editor from PC Magazine described a new type of tv that one could wear in the eyes similar to contact lenses. Body heat would power this tv screen and the transmitter/receiver would be in your pocket. He said that a person could be watching/listening to the TV while walking. He predicted that the technology could be ready in about 10 years. Great. In ten years we will have drivers making calls via their ear piece while also watching TV AND driving. And, we thought that texting was dangerous. |
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We at Ford support effective efforts to reduce driver distraction. A new Ford study shows voice-controlled interfaces such as Ford SYNC significantly reduce distraction levels compared to visually and manually operated handheld cell phones and music players. For example, study participants spent an average of 25 seconds with their eyes-off-the-road to select a song with a handheld MP3 player compared with 2 seconds for those choosing a song using SYNC. This builds on independent research such as the government-sponsored Virginia Tech 100-car naturalistic driving study that followed 109 drivers for one year each, including 42,300 hours of driving over two million miles. The study concluded that manually dialing a handheld device while driving was almost 2.8 times riskier than just driving. However, the on-the-road study showed that talking/listening in a phone conversation while driving was no riskier than just driving. The government has compiled other important research at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/NRD/Multimedia/PDFs/Crash%20Avoid- ance/2008/DOT-HS-810-704.pdf. Wes Sherwood Ford Communications wsherwoo  ford.com
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Replying to: wsherwoo (Feb 12, 2009 7:20 am) Thank goodness the NHTSA has stepped in at this point. And thanks for giving us some input from the automotive industry. I feel a lot better about that study that one published by some medical review that had no access to and automotive data. The hands free thing had some merit and many of us had thought that would be the end of it. But some are anti technology to the extream and even this study isn't going to help them. But I for one will keep it book marked. |
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Replying to: wsherwoo (Feb 12, 2009 7:20 am) of serious crash involvement among drivers using a phone at the time of the collision. Glad the NHTSA acknowledges the exponentially growing body of evidence that cell phone usage has a relationship to collisions. I'm going to bookmark this for the future.
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Replying to: kdshapiro (Feb 15, 2009 9:36 am) of serious crash involvement among drivers using a phone at the time of the collision. Glad the NHTSA acknowledges the exponentially growing body of evidence that cell phone usage has a relationship to collisions. How many of those 500 drivers had previously been involved in a collision? How many of those 500 drivers were intoxicated? How many of those 500 drivers were under 20 or over 60? Wireless Quick Facts So in going from 28.1 million wireless subscribers in 1995 to 195 million in 2005 to 263 million in 2008 there hasn't been quite the upheaval and catastrophe that was predicted. Most research based studies include a peripheral detection task of some sort which is to capture the response time issue. In most cases, it doesn't appear significantly different than the "just drive" task. In those cases where there is a statistically significant different, some aren't actually significant in the real world.
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Replying to: lilengineerboy (Feb 15, 2009 12:26 pm) |
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We could argue the statistical methods used in these studies and cite contrary study results all day long. Why not just leave the statistical analysis to the science dweebs buried in their labs? The truth of the matter is that anyone using a cell phone while driving is more dangerous--period. All other things being equal, the more extraneous tasks a driver is performing necessarily detract from his primary duty of driving. It doesn't matter what one is doing other than driving--if it doesn't directly support the activity of driving, then it detracts from the driver's ability to drive well-period. Any survey that says anything different constitutes more lies from parties that have some interest in the outcome of the study. Sometimes good old anecdotal evidence is the best kind. As a Jets/Mets season ticket holder, I drive from SE VA to NY more than twice monthly--about 900 miiles round trip. Virtually every time I see someone on the interstates doing something stupid, they are doing something other than just driving. While most of the dopes have cellphones to their ears, some are eating, reading, smacking kids around, applying make-up or the worst of all: text messaging. If cops worried as much about distracted drivers as they did speeders, we'd have fewer accidents. No, I don't have statistics to back it up--just plain old common sense.
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Replying to: vinnyny (Feb 16, 2009 8:07 am) |
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Replying to: vinnyny (Feb 16, 2009 8:07 am) Good point. And they had a driving while distracted law that covered all of the things you mentioned. But as far as personal observations? You see what interests you or bothers you the most. When you buy a new car that you don't realize other have what do you see more of than you ever did before/ You see that model car. When I used to drive up the 210 to the 5 to go north of LA I would see cars in the center lane going slower than the flow of traffic. I happen to be big on lane control and have always believed slower traffic should move right. It seemed to me 8 out of 10 of the middle lane drivers were of Asian decent, or Asian looking. Do I then assume Asians are worse drivers than others? Maybe there were just more asian looking drivers in that area. The NHTSA study will give ammunition to hands free proponents to keep the technology in the car. Doesn't mean it will stop the efforts to get rid of it but this is a political battle where the economy and safety will both be concerned. People will have to weigh the risk and eventually vote their conviction. |
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Replying to: boaz47 (Feb 16, 2009 9:54 am) |
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