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 actually making driving more dangerous? We explore in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey brain
Stuff lorn volg bomb here. As some automotive safety experts
have long suspected, recent studies 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

(00:25):
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 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

(00:47):
than making a phone call or texting. But overall, all
infottainment tasks calling or dialing, texting, tuning the radio, or
programming the navigation were associated with higher levels of cognitive demand.
The Triple A research supports the findings of a University
of Michigan study released last summer. This study is sponsored
by an automaker, was designed to find out how drivers

(01:08):
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 on
their own. These two studies identify two main problems. First
that using some safety technology distracts drivers more, and second
that drivers use safety systems as a primary source of

(01:30):
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,
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

(01:50):
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
her behavior, there will be a net loss of safety.
Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows traffic
deaths increased from ten by two point six percent per

(02:15):
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 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

(02:35):
blind spot monitoring, self park or park assistance, dynamic cruise control,
which automatically follows the car in front at a safe distance,
slowing down and speeding up is necessary, 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

(02:59):
such as pedestrian in large animals and cyclists, often combined
with again automatic emergency braking. It's easy to imagine 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

(03:21):
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 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

(03:43):
is that there is no consistency enforced or voluntary among
the auto manufacturers, so these systems can operate 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 neighbor, traffic,
or other obstacles. However, even then, and certainly now, drivers

(04:04):
are still supposed to remain in control of their vehicle.
Since many drivers already show too much 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

(04:25):
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 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

(04:45):
who steps up and initiates that. As for the original
question of whether our driving skills are deteriorating, Vantassele is
a bit more optimistic. He points out that 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

(05:07):
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 written by Shery's Through It
and produced by Tristan McNeil. For more on this and
lots of other distracting topics, visit our home planet, how

(05:27):
Stuff Works dot com.