Car Dashboards That Act Like Smart Phones Raise Safety Issues

Car companies say outsized dashboard displays that behave more like smart phones will boost revenue and attract buyers. And they also insist the new screens will make driving less dangerous, because of well-integrated voice controls and large touch screens that will keep drivers from fumbling with more dangerous mobile phones. But the increasingly elaborate screens have also sparked a broad debate about how much technology is appropriate in a car.

"You can’t be looking at a screen and be looking at the road at the same time," said David Strayer, Professor of Cognition and Neural Science at the University of Utah, who has written several studies on distracted driving. The screens "are enabling activities that take your eyes off the road for longer than most safety advocates would say is safe."

His research shows that reading the average text message—a function some of the screens support—takes four seconds, far longer than what he considers safe.

But for automakers and their customers, the screens are proving irresistible. Up to now, dashboard technology hasn’t factored highly into most car buying decisions, but carmakers expect it to become increasingly important over the next 3-5 years. A recent study by the market research company J.D. Power found that about 15 percent of consumers rule out buying a car if it lacks the latest technology, compared with just 4 percent a year ago.

Currently, dashboard displays are only lightly regulated. Many states forbid the airing of non-navigational videos by drivers while cars are in motion, except for safety video systems designed to help with backing up and other tasks.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued driver-distraction guidelines for dashboard displays in moving cars. They advise against displays that include photographs or moving images unrelated to driving, and suggest that drivers shouldn’t need to tap a button or key more than six times to complete a task. But so far, the guidelines are voluntary, with automakers under no obligation to comply.

The auto industry has issued voluntary guidelines of its own. But in many cases, industry standards fall short of the government's. For example, the industry guidelines say that drivers should be able to complete tasks on the displays in a series of single glances that generally take no more than two seconds each, for a total of twenty seconds. But the government guidelines advise that drivers should be able to complete tasks in a series of 1.5 or two second glances, for a total of no more than twelve seconds.

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