Wisconsin may be the 20th state to ban texting while driving.
Using mobile devices while driving leads to slowed reaction time, unplanned lane changes and more collisions. Ironically, integrating more technology and applications into vehicles should make driving safer.
According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, one-fourth of adolescents age 16 or 17 have texted while driving and nearly half of teenagers of all ages have been in a car while the driver was texting. Nearly 6,000 people were killed and a half-million were injured in vehicle crashes in 2008 connected to driver distraction, including texting, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
This is why Wisconsin could become the 20th state to outlaw texting while driving for all motorists under a bill the Legislature approved this week.
When it comes to reducing driver distractions from activities that include texting, email, MP3 players, and the like, the automotive industry isn’t all talk — but talk (voice commands) remains key.
According to Ford’s research, simple tasks like ‘changing your song request’ on an iPod takes an average of 30.3 seconds for an average user. The same task can be cut to 4.9 seconds using voice control.
Ford Motor Company presented technologies to reduce driver detraction at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas recently. Alan Mulally, Ford’s President and CEO, said his company is dedicated to making the safest, most tech-savvy cars possible by utilizing their SYNC technologies. According to Mulally, 32 percent of buyers said Ford’s SYNC technology is an important or critical factor to their buying choice.
Ford SYNC allows drivers to bring nearly any mobile phone and some digital media players into their vehicle and operate them using voice commands, the vehicle’s steering wheel, or radio controls. According to Derrick Kuzak, from Ford’s product development group, the latest version of SYNC will be an open platform for application developers. It took less than two weeks, according to Kuzak, for developers at Pandora and Stitcher to retrofit their applications to SYNC.
Techn0logy isn’t a substitute for good driving habits, but it can help.
Focus on the Road
Is it smart to put on lipstick while youre driving down the highway? Obviously, not… but we multitask all the time. We eat, text, play with music and do all sorts of things while driving. In this story, see a frightening example of why thats a very bad idea. Video is courtesy of American Family Insurance.
About Troy Janisch
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