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

  • Urban mobility and demand management - the Mobility Credits Model
    January 26, 2012
    Vito Marcolongo and Marco Troglia, Quaeryon srl describe the Mobility Credits Model, which is intended to combine inducements and fairness to improve mobility while reducing its more negative economic and environmental effects
    Read More
  • Why AI could be the saviour of public transport – if we let it
    April 16, 2025
    Get it right and the rewards could be there. Thomas Ableman looks at how transport in the UK – and beyond – might be transformed by artificial intelligence…
    Read More
  • WIM system certification is a complex business
    February 21, 2018
    There are interesting moves afoot to create Germany’s first Weigh-In-Motion enforcement site in Hamburg – but Florian Weiss of Traffic Data Systems warns that WIM certification is a complex business. In the past, Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) was mainly used for statistical (WIM-S) and pre-selection (WIM-P) applications. These abbreviations - as well as WIM-E (enforcement) and WIM-T (tolling) - were created by Traffic Data Systems during Intertraffic 2006 in Amsterdam. This was also the year when we started the
    Read More
  • Øresund bridges the front line for border crossing traffic
    September 15, 2016
    Timothy Compston considers the challenges faced by the operators of the Øresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden, the largest structure of its kind across Europe. In light of the concerns about the ongoing security threat and the unprecedented flow of migrants, many of the countries that make up the Schengen Area in Europe have re-introduced border controls. For its part, Sweden has rolled out ID checks for train, bus and ferry passengers from Denmark placing the landmark Øresund Bridge very much on the fr
    Read More

Highlighted Content