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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Stuff Works dot com.