Automobile and truck manufacturers are increasingly using a single LCD screen to control many in-vehicle accessories like music, GPS and climate control. The text styling on these LCD displays, as well as the buttons surrounding them, are a part of the manufacturer’s branding, just like everything else inside and outside the vehicle. This post’s title,
By: Jeffrey Lapin Cities and states have or are considering laws beyond just no texting and driving. One city, Huron, South Dakota, has adopted an ordinance that prohibits driver’s from activities that could be distracting, such as eating while driving. This is a good first step in trying to reduce distracted driving although enforcement could
By: Jeffrey Lapin Nebraska drivers are not immune from the distractions posed by the desire to “communicate” while driving. Nebraska enacted additional laws in 2010 to try and minimize distractions caused by these devices. However, Nebraska law currently only focuses on those items a driver brings into the vehicle. As noted in another article regarding
By: Jeffrey Lapin An article within Consumer Reports’ October 2011 issue (Connected cars: A new risk) discusses the risks, by diverting the driver’s attention to something other than driving, posed by new technology, such as the ability to text, tweet, access the internet, in many new cars and trucks. The article discusses the types of
By: Jeffrey Lapin The Texas Transportation Institute’s recent study, An Investigation Of The Effects Of Reading And Writing Text-Based Messages While Driving, found, among other things, that a driver’s reaction time is doubled when driving and sending or receiving a text message. The findings were worse than what most experts expected.
By: Jeffrey Lapin The AAA Foundation recently released its Fourth Annual Traffic Safety Culture Index, which found that despite a driver’s knowledge and beliefs about the risks of involved with driving and texting, emailing and talking on a cell phone while driving, many drivers perform these activities anyway. Some of the findings include:
By: Jeffrey Lapin The statistics are alarming for accidents caused by driver distraction. “Distracted driving” is usually defined as “any cognitive, manual and/or visual non-driving activity that diverts a driver’s attention away from driving.” Below is the accident statistical data for 2009, the last year in which completed reports have been published: