BrainStuff Classics: Does Technology Make Us Worse Drivers?

Any high-tech car feature that takes your attention away from the road is a distraction, but are even our automatic safety systems making driving more dangerous? We explore in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://auto.howstuffworks.com/tech-transport/does-technology-make-us-drive-worse.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff, Lauren Volga bam here with another classic brain
Stuff episode for as many ads as we do on
this network about new cars, I personally happen to own
an older one from two thousand seven, so when I
rent a test drive a newer one, I feel like
I'm in the incredible future. I could really see myself

(00:23):
getting used to a reverse camera, or a heads up display,
or safety features that helped keep you in your literal
lane when used correctly. These technologies are great, but we
got to wondering is there such thing as getting too
used to them? Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vulgi bomb here.
As some automotive safety experts have long suspected, recent studies

(00:46):
show that the more technology we have in our cars,
the worse we drive, and that includes cars, infottainment systems,
and active safety systems. The American Automobile Association, or Triple A,
sponsored a study that confirms how distracted drivers get. The
study was conducted by researchers from the University of Utah
and released in October. It rated thirty different vehicles infottainment

(01:09):
systems on their potential to distract drivers. The study found
that navigation systems were the most demanding distractions, and that
tuning the radio and programming the navigation took driver's eyes
off the road longer than making a phone call or texting.
But overall, all infotainment tasks calling or dialing, texting, tuning
the radio, or programming the navigation were associated with higher

(01:31):
levels of cognitive demand. The Triple A research supports the
findings of a University of Michigan study released last summer.
This study, sponsored by an automaker, was designed to find
out how drivers were using the automaker's blind spot warning system. Overwhelmingly,
the researchers found people driving cars with blind spot detection
systems tended to change lanes without ever checking for traffic

(01:53):
on their own. These two studies identified two main problems,
First that using some safety technology distracts drivers more, and
second that drivers use safety systems as a primary source
of input rather than as a backup. This all hints
at a third problem that automakers are racing to develop
these types of technology, and some are less cautious than others. Combined,

(02:15):
these factors add up to a lot more drivers paying
a lot less attention on the road. We spoke with
Bill Van Tassel, manager of driver training programs at the
Triple A. He explained the new technologies are sort of
a double edged sword. If they work properly and drivers
use them properly, there is a net safety benefit. If
it doesn't work properly or the driver changes his or

(02:36):
her behavior, there will be a net loss of safety.
Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows traffic
deaths increased from twenty to sixteen by two point six
percent per one hundred million miles driven, but those deaths
weren't due to distracted driving. Fatalities caused by distracted driving
were actually decreased by more than two percent, but the

(02:59):
rise in drivers not paying attention on the road is
still a problem. Right now, many drivers have access to
some type of autonomous driving technology, usually marketed as active
safety systems, including blind spot monitoring, self park or park assistants,
dynamic cruise control, which automatically follows the car in front
at a safe distance, slowing down and speeding up is necessary,

(03:19):
Lane keep assist, which senses when a car drifts out
of its lane and helps the driver get back on track.
Forward collision warning with emergency braking, which senses when a
car gets too close to the car in front of
it and automatically applies the brakes, and systems that scan
for obstacles such as pedestrians, large animals, and cyclists, often
combined with again automatic emergency braking. It's easy to imagine

(03:41):
that the more of these systems are found in any
given car, the less that a car's driver will believe
it's necessary to pay attention to the road. And here's
where the line gets blurred. Active safety systems are supposed
to be a backup to a driver's skills to step
in if the driver should make an error. Yet autonomous
and self driving car technology implies by its very name
that the driver won't really have to do anything behind

(04:03):
the wheel. Another issue is that most of these systems
are still relatively new and have only recently begun to
show up on affordable mainstream cars. That means a lot
of consumers don't know how to use them. Yet. Further
complicating matters is that there is no consistency enforced or
voluntary among the auto manufacturers, so these systems can operate

(04:23):
very differently between brands and models. Eventually, a true self
driving car will use all of these systems and more
networked together to ensure the car never comes too close
to neighboring traffic or other obstacles. However, even then, and
certainly now, drivers are still supposed to remain in control
of their vehicle. Since many drivers already show too much

(04:44):
confidence in active safety systems, some safety experts worry that
it will be hard to convince people to pay attention
to the road in an even more autonomous vehicle. Experts
suggest that standardizing technology terminology will help consumers understand what
they're buying and how it really works, and further that
auto manufacturers should work with dealers to make sure that
information is getting across to their buyers. Van Tassel of

(05:07):
Triple A maintains that ultimately the responsibility lies with the driver.
He said, you should know what your vehicle systems will
do and what they won't do. You're the one taking
the vehicle on the road, so you need to be
the one who steps up and initiates that. As for
the original question of whether our driving skills are deteriorating,
Vantassel is a bit more optimistic. He points out that

(05:28):
drivers now need to learn how to use twenty or
more new kinds of technology, so in a sense, our
skill sets are expanding. In the future, traditional driving skills
may no longer be necessary, but fully autonomous cars are
still a long way off. For the time being, drivers
should be ever more vigilant and ensure they're using self
driving technology as intended. Today's episode was originally produced by

(05:55):
Tristan McNeil and it's based on the article do our
driving skills diminished when technology takes over? On how stuff
works dot Com written by Charis Threwit. Brain Stuff is
production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff
works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four
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