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What Technologies Do People Use When Driving and Why?
Published in Katie J. Parnell, Neville A. Stanton, Katherine L. Plant, Driver Distraction, 2018
Katie J. Parnell, Neville A. Stanton, Katherine L. Plant
Reading a text message was the task that drivers from all age groups rated as more likely than other mobile phone tasks. It is argued here that the reactional nature of this task is what affords this higher rating, with many drivers commenting that they are often alerted to the text by a tone or it flashing up on their phone, which catches their attention and encourages them to then read the text or see who it is from. This therefore questions the responsibility of phone manufacturers who permit such interactions with drivers. The technology is available to impose phone applications that freeze phone interactions while driving but they are not in widespread use. Phone manufacturers currently have no obligation to cater for phone functionality while driving; advocates of a more systemic approach to safety state that this should change (e.g. Young & Salmon, 2015). Furthermore, as drivers are increasingly using their mobile phones for multiple functionalities while driving, such as music players and navigational aids, phone manufacturers need to be aware of how their devices are influencing the driving task and their potential to cause distraction-related accidents. One step towards this is the latest software update for iphones (ios 11, released September 2017) by Apple that incorporates a ‘do not disturb while driving mode’ that will sense when the phone is in a moving vehicle and will, once prompted by the user, turn off notifications, and prevent the screen from lighting up (Apple, 2017). The feature can also be set up to auto reply to contacts to inform them the person they are trying to contact is driving. This is a feature that other device manufacturers have tried to develop. This is a large step by a leading phone manufacture in realising their responsibility for distracted drivers. Future research is needed to assess the efficiency of this tool as well as its uptake and integration with general mobile phone use. Such methods can be subject to user adaption to overcome boundaries. Furthermore, the current version of the application can be disabled readily by the user or overridden while in motion.
Social distance and texting while driving: A behavioral economic analysis of social discounting
Published in Traffic Injury Prevention, 2019
Anne M. Foreman, Yusuke Hayashi, Jonathan E. Friedel, Oliver Wirth
A better understanding of decisions to text while driving is useful only if it can inform the development of interventions. Some existing interventions already incorporate aspects of social distance. Recent Apple (iOS 11 and later) devices have a Do Not Disturb function that detects when the cell phone user is driving, disables text message notifications, and automatically replies to texts with a message that inform the sender the individual is driving. This function also allows users to permit phone calls, messages, or notifications from only their “favorites” (those closer in social distance) or only if the sender includes the word “urgent” in the message. Many free applications with similar functionality are available for non-Apple phones (Oviedo-Trespalacios et al. 2019). Some of them also offer rewards for safe driving. For example, the application Mojo awards points for chances to win gift cards after refraining from phone use while driving. There is some evidence that such applications are effective in reducing cellphone use while driving among young drivers (Creaser et al. 2015), but generalizability is still a concern (Delgado et al. 2016). More research is needed to evaluate these kinds of intervention strategies.