GigaOM » texting while driving

The connected car: How to design compelling apps without causing accidents

Robert Acker, Aha by Harman — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:17:18 +0000

The average American spends more than two hours a day in the car. If you’re like me, you probably spend a good chunk of the remaining 22 hours each day interacting with computers, smartphones and tablets. Human nature being what it is, we don’t want to cut ourselves off from these useful — some might say addictive — communication, information and entertainment devices for the 15 or so hours we spend inside a car each week.

From working at XM Satellite Radio to leading Rhapsody’s music service and later launching the Internet-connected GPS device Dash, I have spent most of my career in pursuit of one goal: to deliver the connected information and entertainment content people want to their driver’s seat. In my my current role leading Aha by Harman, I believe the “connected car” industry’s biggest challenge is to provide the mobile apps and services that consumers want in a way that makes safety the top priority. To do that, we have to look beyond interface design and consider human behavior.

Automobile makers understand people’s desire to be connected. As a result, some of their newer, more technically advanced automotive infotainment systems are starting to resemble smartphones and tablets on wheels, featuring large capacitive touch-screen displays. The problem, of course, is that a car is neither a phone nor a tablet. It’s a two-ton hunk of steel and glass that has to be maneuvered safely through traffic.

Two schools of thought have emerged. One is to ban or severely restrict the use of distractive technology while driving. We all know how well that works. A recent survey found that nearly 40 percent of young drivers admit to texting while driving, and laws requiring drivers to use hands-free mobile phone headsets don’t seem to have had much effect, based on casual observation of cars driving past my office in Palo Alto, Calif.

The other approach is to design new user interfaces — the modern, digital versions of buttons and knobs and dials — that provide the same general functions of smartphones and tablets while minimizing distractions for the driver. There have been promising advances in voice recognition and controls — Apple’s Siri is one emerging example, Dragon from Nuance is another — but the technology is still in the training-wheel stage.

There’s also a huge challenge: If the controls for these new dashboard information centers are either too complex or fail to quickly deliver the information one wants, drivers will simply skip the car’s built-in systems and go back to using their handheld phones and tablets while driving. We’ve got to make the automobile interfaces compelling enough to persuade drivers to put aside their smartphones, but not so compelling as to divert attention away from the road ahead.

Adding to the challenge, the technology in our pockets is advancing faster than a Ferrari down Highway 101. Apple comes out with a new and improved and more alluring iPhone every year, while the information system built into your dashboard is locked in for as long as you own the car, which today is an average of six years. Even if your new car comes with today’s latest whiz-bang technology features, it will seem outdated a few years from now when your new iPhone 10 has a 3D holographic display and a mind-reading interface.

We know what won’t work: millions of drivers hurtling down the road while poking, swiping and typing on touch screens for email, text messages, podcasts, driving directions, global streaming radio, restaurant reservations, social media feeds and the like.

But we also know what has worked in the past. Generations of drivers have managed to stay relatively safe while reaching for the volume knob on a car radio, or pushing a preset button or switching from AM to FM to CD to Sirius/XM satellite radio. Current physical dashboard commands — up arrow, down arrow, right arrow forward, left arrow back and so on — are familiar and easy to operate, and certainly less distracting than a touch-screen display whose user interface requires the driver to slide a finger precisely along a path. The key will be to map a diverse array of new digital services and applications to familiar human behaviors that minimize the distractions for the driver. It’s been exciting to see major car makers such as Acura, Honda and Subaru (disclosure: all are Aha partners) move in this direction with their infotainment systems in 2013 model year vehicles.

Paradoxically, the solution might be to go back to dedicated buttons that don’t require taking one’s eyes off the road. Video game developers learned long ago that when aliens are attacking, a single “Fire!” button works much better than a sequence of CTRL-ALT-whatever keystrokes.

Another design strategy might be to eliminate, or at least limit, interface elements that require the driver to respond immediately, or to retain sequences of information that are cognitively demanding. When the user is sitting at his desk at work, he has no problem tapping out sequences like “Show me reviews for all the three-star Chinese restaurants within five miles,” and “Make a reservation.” “How many people?” “Four.” “What time? Your options are 6:30, 7:15 and 7:45.” When the user is driving in rush hour traffic, such extended interactions are a recipe for an accident.

Above all, the goal of interface design in automobile-based services must be safety. A decade ago, researchers at Harvard estimated that drivers talking on cellphones caused 2,600 fatal accidents and 570,000 other injury accidents the previous year. That was before the iPhone and iPad, before Facebook, before just about all the mobile apps we now can’t imagine living without. The question now is, can we live with them in the car?

In the car of the future, these concerns might not matter. The biggest advance in automobile safety will come from replacing human drivers with radar, LIDAR, GPS, computer vision and robotic chauffeurs. At that point, we’ll all be passengers, free to sit back and touch, swipe and immerse ourselves from here to Grandma’s house. But these are far-off concepts.

Until then, we have to figure out how to design compelling apps that are safe for human drivers to use. We don’t have the answer yet, but we do have a huge opportunity.

Robert Acker has been an entrepreneur in the connected car space for more than 14 years. In his current role with global infotainment company, Harman, Acker and his team are developing and launching Aha, which turns Web content into on-demand radio stations.

Robert Acker will be discussing the connected-car experience onstage at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference on September 20.

Image courtesy of Flickr user digitaljournal.com.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

The newest phone app teens will hate but parents will love

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:22:28 +0000

With 11 teens killed while texting and driving per day, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that parents are turning towards apps to limit their kids’ phone use behind the wheel. The sad statistic comes from Chris Holbert, CEO of SecuraFone, which offers an app for iPhone and Android handsets that diables some phone features when moving 5 mph or more. SecuraFone doesn’t stop there though: It also allows parents to monitor where their kids are driving and how fast they’re going.

SecuraFone was one of several safety apps featured on NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams earlier this week:

Note that some features are free while premium functions cost $8.99 per month; the SecuraFone site isn’t clear which are free and which are premium.

I’ve seen apps similar to SecuraFone, but this one goes a few steps further than most and here’s where the teens will really cringe.

If teens need to text for an emergency or some other reason, they have to use the app to send a request to their parents; a 15-minute window of communications can be granted. Aside from disabling texts, the software can use a handset’s GPS to track location, complete with a 90 day history. Parents can also set up a geo-fence boundary and receive an alert when their kids pass beyond the borders. And parental alerts are also available if kids drive faster than a certain speed. Perhaps these additional functions are a bit much for most, but at its core, SecuraFone offers some peace of mind for parents.

One of my kids is set to hit the driving age in 2013, so I’ll be giving these types of apps some serious thoughts between now and then. I’m curious: Are any of our readers already using one of these, and if so, what do the kids think?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Safety last? the conundrum of connected cars

Barb Darrow — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:22:39 +0000

Updated. U.S. car makers, reinvigorated after their near-death experience, are adding the latest consumer electronics to their new models as a way to boost profits, a fact that the Wall Street Journal attributed to newfound confidence that the federal government will not regulate these “infotainment” incursions.

The Big Three and their overseas rivals all converged at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show and Detroit Auto Show to show off their efforts, as GigaOM reported at the time.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, which hosted a distracted driving summit in 2009 and 2010, did not hold the event last year, a sign that the issue is not a priority, which has emboldened automakers to forge ahead, according to the Journal. Update: A DOT spokeswoman said it is too early to say if the agency will host the summit, which has taken place in the fall, this year. But she said the agency remains focused on the problem of distracted driving.

This in-car infotainment deluge comes despite the fact that a driver who texts (or is otherwise distracted) is 23 times more likely to crash, according to the National Transportation Board, which posts such data to its distraction.gov website. Other distractions include reading onboard GPS systems, adjusting the radio or watching a video.

While the consumer electronics and software companies at these events were careful to stress their reliance on hands-free operation, the fact remains that the automobile is looking more and more like a home entertainment center. The Journal said the automakers have used these hands-free features to say that using in-dash systems is safer than manipulating their cell phones to make calls or text.

As Michael Sprague, the marketing director at Kia Motors’ North American division, told the Journal:

Consumers are going to continue to drive with phones and all we can do as a manufacturer is to provide what the consumers are asking for and make it as safe as possible.

This contention between infotainment and safety will not go away anytime soon. Critics complain that what the automakers and their consumer electronics allies are doing is making it easier to drive while distracted. If the federal government won’t act, the states may. Massachusetts, for example, is getting closer to banning all use of handheld cell phones by drivers. New York is also pondering such a move. Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia have already banned texting while driving. Thirty states (and Washington, D.C.) ban all cell phone use by new drivers. The Governors Highway Safety Association keeps a list of distracted driving statutes by state. And New York state is about to hold a hearing on distracted driving.

It doesn’t take a huge leap to see that as these new gizmo-packed cars hit the road, the potential for more distracted drivers will rise. Look for more scrutiny from safety advocacy groups and the states, if not the federal government, going forward.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user mroach

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Infographic: Are mobile devices destroying your body?

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:58:15 +0000

Connected mobile devices make life easier, but are our bodies paying too high a price? Eyewear retailer Mezzmer culled a number of datapoints in an infographic that gives a glimpse into the health complications brought by small screens, speakers and the ergonomics of using handheld computers. Posture, vision issues, hearing and sleep deprivation are just a few of the challenges illustrated.

Related to these, and possibly the most harmful, is texting and driving. The smartest thing I’ve done recently is to avoid using the phone while driving at nearly all costs, although I don’t think we need the NTSB to legislate that choice. There has to be a better technical solution.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Feds say you should stop texting (and talking) while driving

Stacey Higginbotham — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:57:45 +0000

The National Transportation Safety Board recommended on Tuesday that states ban all driver use of cell phones and other portable electronic devices, except in emergencies. The recommendation doesn’t have the weight of law, but could have policy repercussions in the states and municipalities leading to stricter laws about cell phone use on the road. Heck, and while they’re at it, perhaps they can stop those ladies putting on makeup, people reading or eating messy foods while trying to navigate our roadways?

Cell phone bans have been a hot topic for years as cities tried to create guidelines that allowed people to talk but required them use a headset. Texting while driving became a hot topic in 2009, especially after the New York Times decided to make it a national deal with a series of articles and exposés on the traffic accidents caused by the practice. And who among us can say they haven’t been behind a particularly inattentive driver only to see them glancing down at their phone? Of course, given that in 2010 one in four people admitted to texting while driving, clearly this epidemic of messaging from the driver’s seat is pretty widespread.

But, as someone who regularly relies on my phone for directions (yes, I set them in advance or pull over to get them started), I’m hoping we can create some reasonable rules for what are some very multifunctional devices. How many of you tune into Pandora on your phone while in the car? Or dial up a podcast? Of course, as cars themselves become connected, the recommendation may become a boon for the cell phone companies providing the connections for in-car infotainment products, because they’d get double the subscription revenue from folks paying for a handset connection and a car connection.

The CTIA has come out on Tuesday stating it has no issue with the recommendation that bans manual texting (emphasis mine) while driving and pretty much saying it will defer to local laws in the case of rules associated with talking while driving. The industry may want people to use its products, but it doesn’t want to be the reason for a 12-car pileup or unnecessary deaths. Plus, it may be able to sell people tools that turn off texting or reroute calls while people are on the road.

Of course, no matter what the NTSB recommends and even what laws are passed there will always be people who are sure that the law doesn’t apply to them, and I can’t really see police getting aggressive about enforcement. Plus, enforcing such bans would be a challenge without giving the police easy access to data on our cell phones, something many people would rather not share with their federal or local law enforcement at a routine traffic stop. Sadly, asking people to be responsible and safety conscious when piloting a multi-ton vehicle doesn’t seem to work.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Stay at Home — Mobile Technology Distracting Fleet Drivers Too

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:23:32 +0000

Commercial and fleet drivers are no less resistant to operating handheld devices than the rest of us, as distracted driving among the newest in this group is up 9 percent in the last three months. The disturbing data comes from SmartDrive, a San Diego, Calif.-based driver-monitoring company specializing in fleet safety and operational efficiency. In the last quarter alone, SmartDrive collected 3.51 million driving events from 21,456 video-equipped vehicles to determine what activities are taking up the attention of commercial drivers. What used to be the CB radio is now handheld devices.

Two of the top five distracting activities witnessed in the group are operating a mobile phone — up 27 percent from the prior quarter –and using some other type of handheld device, such as a GPS or MP3 player — up a hefty 38 percent from the first three months of 2010. Rounding out the top five were expected activities: smoking, drinking or holding some other physical object while behind the wheel.

What concerns me as another driver sharing the same roads as these commercial drivers is that often, these drivers battle fatigue, given that driving fast and far is their daily vocation. Add the tired factor to distracting devices and you have countless recipes for potential disaster. Indeed, SmartDrive is starting to measure the impact of driver drowsiness in its studies:

By analyzing in-cab activity captured on video in the 15 seconds prior to those events, evaluators were able to observe several behaviors associated with the near-collisions. The four most common behaviors observed in near-collision events in [the second quarter] were drowsiness/falling asleep, running through a stoplight or stop sign, engaging in a lane change (merging or passing) and following at an unsafe distance.

Such trends are concerning, especially with the newest monitored drivers — a mere 5 percent of the overall group — who accounted for a disproportionate 57 percent of all mobile phone incidents captured by SmartDrive. However, SmartDrive positions the data as an opportunity for fleets and commercial trucking companies to educate their drivers. Sadly, there’s no such program for the rest of us, other than public awareness messages and software that disables your phone when the GPS radio senses that you’re moving. We need more solutions however, as one out of every four adults in recent TeleNav survey admitted to texting while driving. With both commercial and non-commercial drivers banging away on handhelds, I’m glad to have a job I can work safely at home.

Related content on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Is Speech Recognition Finally Ready for Prime-Time?

Forget Texting, Let's Talk About Taking Pictures While Driving

Stacey Higginbotham — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:35:11 +0000

Everyone talks about texting while driving, but what about something I think may be even more distracting: “snapping while driving,” as in taking photographs? In the last few weeks, I’ve twice been behind cars (a truck in one case) whose drivers have whipped out smartphones and taken pictures while at a light or stop sign. Austin is a picturesque city, but I was still surprised to look over on my way to an event on Wednesday evening and see the driver to my right aiming a camera phone at her right, while in moving traffic.

The photographic proof is all over the web, with my colleague Kevin sending me evidence of his own guilt on this matter (see photo). From pictures of rainbows taken while driving to photos of famous landmarks, I have to ask why people take such a risk. The act of taking a picture with many touchscreen smartphones requires one to unlock the screen, (maybe one has to enter a pin or a specific swipe pattern), find the camera app, open it, frame the picture and then click the shutter.

Aside from not paying attention to the road while doing all of these things, during the act of framing the picture, the driver is looking at what he or she wants to capture, and people tend to drive in the direction they are looking. That might be fine if you’re snapping something from your front window, but it’s a mite scary when you’re trying to snag the image of the scenery whizzing by at 45 miles per hour.

The dangers of texting while driving have been well articulated and researched, although one in four admit to doing it. And I know that people put makeup on in traffic, eat food (guilty), and I’ve even seen folks playing with iPads. I’m pretty worried about the prevalence of our electronic gadget obsession while on the road. Our need to document, share and consume information while also piloting a fast-moving vehicle is risky for the driver as well as anyone else on the road. I’m concerned that things like attractive mobile ads or augmented reality might make it even worse. Readers, what’s your take?

Related content on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Is Speech Recognition Finally Ready for Prime-Time?

Will Ads Stop Your Dangerous Texting Habit?

Stacey Higginbotham — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:22:10 +0000

Verizon is showing off an advertisement today (that will run on TV starting Monday) aimed at stopping people from texting and driving, but it’s far too mild for me. I prefer something along the lines of this CTIA ad, which has some of the drama we’ve come to expect from public service announcements. However, the CTIA ad is aimed at teenagers rather than adults; given how many adults text or even just browse on their phones as they drive, perhaps they need an ad targeted at them, too. But will these ads, a bevy of upcoming laws and even the existence of sites like AKBadDriver’s tweet stream actually stop folks from texting (or reading emails) while driving? What about you? Take the poll below the fold.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.