[571] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Driving to Kill: Dying for Dashboard Toys
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Thu Jan 7 16:42:49 2010
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 13:13:17 -0800
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Driving to Kill: Dying for Dashboard Toys
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000662.html
Greetings. At the ongoing Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, auto
manufacturers appear to be in a race to kill more motorists than ever
before.
This has nothing to do with speed or brakes per se, and everything to
do with an escalating array of distracting dashboard gadgets.
Let's start with a fact. Distracted driving kills. And there are a
wide variety of possible distractions. One reason that I have
consistently opposed laws banning the use of hand-held cell phones
when driving is that such laws do not address the core problem of
distractions, which has nothing whatever to do with whether devices
are hand-held or not. In fact it's the mental distractions related to
interacting with these systems that create the risks. (Please see
[ http://bit.ly/6YlLG7 ] U.S. Group Wants Total Driving Cell Phone
Ban -- Or -- "Are you talking to yourself again?" and associated
retrospective links, for my previous discussions related to this
topic.)
We know that people have died as a result of distractions caused by
simply fumbling around with ordinary car radios while driving.
In-dash GPS systems add another layer of distraction that is difficult
to resist, even with voice guidance, but it can also be argued that
GPS provides a key capability important to the basic goals of
driving -- for example, getting to the right place without resorting to
distracting paper maps and the like.
But lately auto manufacturers have been piling on far less necessary
entertainment extras, including all manner of video playback
capabilities (while driver-side video is usually supposed to be
disabled while actually driving, this lockout can often be easily
defeated).
Now comes word from CES that Ford is bringing Twitter services to
their in-car "Sync" system -- right at the same time that moves
nationwide to ban text-messaging while driving have been gathering
momentum.
I like Twitter. I use it all the time, on desktops and on my Android
phone. But the thought of people driving while receiving or sending
tweets -- whether as text or audio -- scares the hell out of me.
Perhaps worst of all, Ford CEO Alan Mulally told an audience at CES
that because Sync is voice-activated, it's safer for drivers than
using their phones in the car ( http://bit.ly/6yVWxf ).
I won't call Alan a liar. Let's just say that he appears to be
dangerously misinformed. Virtually every reputable study I've seen on
this topic has reported that hands-free and hand-held cell phone use
while driving carry the same significant distraction risks.
As I mentioned above, these dangerous distractions are intrinsic to
the mental processes of interacting with these systems, and these are
fundamentally the same when driving whether you're holding a cell
phone, talking on a speakerphone, or even interacting with Twitter in
a hands-free mode.
I like my Internet toys as much as the next person -- probably even
more than most people. But I don't love them enough to want people
dying as a result of auto manufacturers pushing ever more dangerous
extra-cost distractions into our vehicles -- in their never-ending
quest to stay financially afloat.
Much as I hate to say this, it may well be appropriate for some
preemptive federal regulatory activity in this area.
Most of us need our cars. But killing or dying due to tweets or other
unnecessary driving distractions is just plain stupid -- and in many
cases likely criminal as well.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
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