US DOT proposes guidelines to address driver distraction

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released proposed guidelines today to help address driver distraction caused by mobile and other electronic devices in vehicles. The announcement covers the second phase of voluntary guidelines to address driver distraction on US. roads. The first phase focused on devices or systems built into the vehicle at the time of manufacture. The proposed, voluntary guidelines are designed to encourage portable and after
November 25, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s 834 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released proposed guidelines today to help address driver distraction caused by mobile and other electronic devices in vehicles. The announcement covers the second phase of voluntary guidelines to address driver distraction on US. roads. The first phase focused on devices or systems built into the vehicle at the time of manufacture.

The proposed, voluntary guidelines are designed to encourage portable and aftermarket electronic device developers to design products that, when used while driving, reduce the potential for driver distraction.

The guidelines encourage manufacturers to implement features such as pairing, where a portable device is linked to a vehicle’s infotainment system, as well as Driver Mode, which is a simplified user interface. Both pairing and Driver Mode will reduce the potential for unsafe driver distraction by limiting the time a driver’s eyes are off the road, while at the same time preserving the full functionality of these devices when they are used at other times.
Location Based Systems Networking & Communication Systems Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • US joint university team wins ITE’s transportation challenge
    August 28, 2018
    A joint team from the Universities of Texas, Wyoming and Kansas has won the first Transportation Technology Tournament organised by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). The winning project set out to address what it called “non-recurrent congestion challenges” in Washington, DC, such as increased traffic on days when the Washington Nationals baseball team played at home. The team worked with the District Department of Transportation (DoT) to develop real-time traveller information systems to
    Read More
  • NHTSA studies hacking risks to automated vehicles
    May 21, 2013
    A report by Bloomberg says that rising hacking risks to drivers as their cars become increasingly powered by and connected to computers have prompted the US’s auto-safety regulator to start a new office focusing on the threat. “These interconnected electronics systems are creating opportunities to improve vehicle safety and reliability, but are also creating new and different safety and cybersecurity risks,” David Strickland, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said at a recent Senat
    Read More
  • Big data and self-driving cars: New studies from ITF
    May 29, 2015
    Two new reports launched by the International Transport Forum (ITF) during the Annual Summit of Transport Ministers in Leipzig, Germany, highlight issues for the transport sector: the use of big data and the trend towards automated cars. The ITF claims that failing to ensure strong privacy protection in the collection and processing of location data may result in a regulatory backlash against the technology, which could hamper innovation and limit the social and economic benefits the use of such data delive
    Read More
  • US infrastructure: once in a lifetime
    April 23, 2021
    Expectations are sky-high for Amtrak Joe and Mayor Pete as they use infrastructure spending to rebuild the US economy post-Covid – and ITS firms should be able to get a share...
    Read More

Highlighted Content