How Technology Can Prevent Distracted Driving
In recent years, technological advancements have been happening at a tremendous pace. There’s a never-ending quest to access information and digital content in a faster and easier manner.
Sadly, the efficiency with which we are able to access information has brought some baggage with it – distraction. Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to have a quiet day. Even when you’re out of office, you keep getting inundated with endless messages and notifications.
These distractions follow you right from the time you wake up, to the time you retire to bed. What is even more concerning is that you can easily get distracted while engaged in attention-demanding activities like driving. Such distractions have resulted in numerous accidents and countless deaths on our roads. According to the NHTSA, in 2016 alone, 3,450 lives were lost due to distracted driving. And guess what is promising to come to our rescue once again, technology.
Ironical as it may sound, car manufacturers are working tirelessly to come up with innovations that are designed to save you from yourself. Isn’t it funny that we always have the option to turn off these distractions but then we deliberately choose to keep them on? In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the major technologies that have been designed to prevent distracted driving.
Improved Use Of Voice Commands
Voice recognition technology is still far from perfect. Homophones, in particular, are a hard nut to crack. How is voice recognition software supposed to distinguish between “some” and “sum”, “suite” and “sweet” etc.? Regardless of all these challenges, however, voice recognition technology has grown in leaps and bounds.
The latest car infotainment systems allow drivers to perform routine functions without taking their hands off the steering wheel. All you have to do is press a button and issue a voice command. Simply stating, “I’m feeling cold” will prompt the car to raise the temperature on the air-con. This helps to reduce the distraction on the driver since you can issue commands without shifting focus from the road.
Lane Keeping Assistance
This technology makes use of the front-facing camera on your vehicle to detect when you are drifting from your lane. It’s able to detect this through the lane markings on the road. It then gently steers you back to your lane and displays a warning message on the dashboard. Other versions will also include a vibration on the steering wheel to “wake you up”. This should let you know that your focus is not on the road, prompting you to take appropriate action.
Blocking Of Calls When Driving
Phone calls are a very popular source of distraction. They seem to create a certain sense of urgency that causes you to drop everything else and shift your attention to them. Interestingly, not all phone calls are that urgent. Most can wait until you are in a position to answer them without posing a risk to yourself. Some cellphone blocking technologies allow you to block phone calls, text messages, and internet access while driving. This effectively eliminates the likelihood of distraction from a phone call while on the wheel.
Blocking Of Internet Access While Engine Is On
This is another nifty feature of car infotainment systems which is designed to create a distraction-free environment. Vehicle manufacturers know that some of the most enticing distractions originate from the Internet. This technology is able to detect when the engine is on and effectively shuts off internet access through the car’s connection. This means that you can only browse the internet from the car when it is stationary and safe for you.
Detection When You Take Hands Off The Steering
You may want to take advantage of self-driving technology by completely taking your hands off the steering wheel. This technology is gaining traction quite fast but car manufacturers are still not fully confident with it. Though the system can steer the vehicle on its own, it can only do so for a few seconds, for now. When the vehicle detects you have taken your hands off the steering, it will display a warning message asking you to take back control. If you choose to ignore this message, the vehicle will automatically brake and eventually stop.
Spartanburg Car Accident Lawyer
Even with the latest technologies in place, accidents still do happen. In case of a car accident, getting a good lawyer is one of the smartest decisions you can make. This makes a huge difference by ensuring that you get the right compensation for damages. Finding the best car accident attorney in Spartanburg is just a click away.
