AAA Foundation: Infotainment Systems distract and endanger drivers

Vehicle infotainment systems take drivers eyes off the road and hands off the wheel for potentially dangerous periods of time, according to the latest research from the American Automobile Association’s Foundation for Traffic Safety (AFTF). The AFTF commissioned researchers from the University of Utah to examine visual (eyes off road) and cognitive (mental) demands and the time taken to complete infotainment systems tasks on 120 drivers aged 12 -36 on 30 new 2017 model-year vehicles.
October 6, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

Vehicle infotainment systems take drivers eyes off the road and hands off the wheel for potentially dangerous periods of time, according to the latest research from the 1765 American Automobile Association’s Foundation for Traffic Safety (AFTF).

The AFTF commissioned researchers from the University of Utah to examine visual (eyes off road) and cognitive (mental) demands and the time taken to complete infotainment systems tasks on 120 drivers aged 12 -36 on 30 new 2017 model-year vehicles. The participants used voice command, touch screen and other technologies to make a call, send a text message, tune the radio or program navigation on down the road. 

The research found that drivers using voice-based and touch screen features were visually and mentally distracted for more than 40 seconds and that a driver travelling at 40km/h (25mph) can travel the length of four football pitches in the time it can take to enter a destination in navigation.

None of the 30 vehicles infotainment systems produced low demand on drivers; while 12 systems generated very high demand, 11 generated high demand and 7 systems provided a moderate level demand. The researchers equate very high demand as the equivalent of a driver trying to balance a cheque book while driving and low-level demand to listening to the radio or an audiobook.

Researchers found infotainment systems could be made safer by following federal recommendations such as locking out text messaging, social media and programming navigation while the car is in motion.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • TEXpress adds reversible managed lanes
    April 19, 2017
    Land availability restrictions and tidal traffic flows have led to the implementation of a novel managed lane configuration in Texas, as Colin Sowman finds out. Dealing with traffic congestion related to the ‘tidal flows’ caused by large numbers of commuters making their way into major business hubs in the morning and returning to the suburbs in the evening, has seen the widespread use of adaptive signal timing and even reversible lanes.
    Read More
  • Europe’s road safety gains have stagnated EU
    March 17, 2017
    Europe will fail to meet its road death targets as enforcement budgets are slashed and drivers face an epidemic of distractions. The European Union will not achieve its aim of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020, delegates to Tispol’s (the organisation of European traffic police) annual conference in Manchester were told. “The target will be missed because there was only a 17% decrease in road fatalities across Europe between 2010 and 2015 when [the rate of reduction] should h
    Read More
  • Most pedestrian detection systems ‘hit pedestrians at 30mph’
    October 14, 2019
    In-car automatic emergency braking systems with pedestrian detection mostly fail to avoid hitting pedestrians - and are “completely ineffective at night”, according to new research. In shocking findings, the American Automobile Association (AAA) revealed that most systems hit a simulated pedestrian target at 30mph. A collision also occurred 89% of the time when a vehicle operating at 20mph encountered a child darting between two cars. In tests, all vehicles collided with an adult pedestrian immediately fo
    Read More
  • Polarised imaging gives enforcement clarity
    February 6, 2020
    Polarised imaging advances have finally allowed ITS technology to catch up with previously unenforceable international bans on smoking in cars, says Sony’s Stephane Clauss
    Read More

Highlighted Content