Distracted Driving and the Importance of Fully Automated User Experiences
January 28, 2022
Dangerous and deadly statistics
Distracted driving isn’t just a nuisance for other drivers or law enforcement, it can be deadly. According to the most recent data shared by the United States Department of Transportation in 2019 alone, distracted driving claimed 3,142 lives. Some of those unfortunate distracted drivers may have been texting or posting to social media when they should have been paying attention to the road. Others may have been distracted due to being anxious about elements of their commute. Still other distracted drivers may have taken their eyes off the road while rummaging for change for a toll booth.
There are no exact numbers available on distraction caused directly by commute elements, but countless drivers are distracted daily while searching for the correct change for tolls. Whenever possible policy makers must find ways to ease further distractions for drivers.
Inconsistent hands-free cell phone laws
To combat distracted driving, many states have implemented hands-free cell phone laws. The Department of Motor Vehicles DMV) website lists distracted driving laws by state, with individual cities in the same state often having radically different laws. Hands-free cell phone laws help to a degree, but the inconsistency of the laws, penalties, and even age requirements potentially make them harder to enforce.
On January 13, 2022, San Luis Obispo Police Department announced additional officers on patrol looking for drivers in violation of the state’s hands free law. While this is a commendable effort, it potentially puts the safety of these officers at risk since it could potentially create additional visual distractions that keep drivers' eyes off the roads. It also puts officers at risk of being injured in the line of duty. On a more practical level, attempting to police distracted drivers is also potentially an inefficient approach, since there is already a limitation on how many violators can be caught by enforcement operators.
Though San Luis Obispo (SLO) is making a great effort to enforce hands-free cell phone laws, it’s not an approach that could work in larger cities or on a national level. SLO is a tiny city with an estimated population of 47,700, not all of them drivers. It would be impossible -- not to mention incredibly costly -- to try to set up police monitoring state-wide in heavily populated states.
Crash data provided by the New York State Traffic Safety Repository (TSSR) for 2019, revealed that 90,000 accidents were caused by drivers texting or otherwise distracted. It would be impossible for any police force to monitor that level of traffic. Instead, policy makers must search for ways to diminish distractions as well, and that should include fully automating a commute to avoid toll-related distractions.
Distracted driving defined
As explained on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website “Distracted driving is any activity that diverts attention from driving.” Included on that list are talking or texting on the phone, eating and drinking, talking to people in your vehicle, fiddling with the stereo, or entertainment or navigation system.
Even looking away from the road for a few seconds can prove dangerous. As explained by NHTSA, when driving at 55 mph, ignoring the road for five seconds means driving distracted for the length of an entire football field.
Policymakers must pursue every possible way to keep drivers engaged in their commute without distractions.
Minimizing distracted driving with fully automated commutes
Fully automating a daily commute could at the very least alleviate some causes of distracted driving, while allowing drivers more peace of mind to pay attention to the road and fellow commuters. After all, accidents caused by distracted drivers impact even the most mindful drivers. By empowering drivers to stay focused we also increase their ability to react when faced with dangerous road conditions or distracted drivers they face while commuting.
By using an app such as GoCarma, which requires no user interaction, on tolled facilities, there’s never a reason for a driver to look for a toll tag or proper change. While this won’t fully cut down on distracted driving, it’s yet another way to encourage drivers to pay more attention to the road at all times. Creating a suite of policies to cut down and hopefully eliminate the most egregious distracted offenders also creates a safer commute for those already paying attention to the commute as well as police officers.
GoCarma, the only consistently effective option to help fully automate users' toll experiences
Once installed, the GoCarma is awakened by the operating system only when it enters a priced / tolled facility, and it can verify occupancy of a vehicle using non-trackable Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology without any user interaction. Commuters don’t have to stop to count change or reload cards or badges, they can keep their attention on their commute.
And while the approach is new to many, this technology has been used by dozens of other apps for more than a decade while tracking more than a billion user trips across public transportation, carpools, car sharing and autonomous vehicles.
GoCarma doesn’t just help with the commute, it helps drivers become more focused on their commute thereby creating safer road conditions.
The future of road safety means making the right investment in a virtual system that is easy for commuters to use and can be updated in real-time to align seamlessly with new policies and legislation.
Drivers already have enough distractions. Creating fully automated user experiences is a critical move forward to minimize these distractions while creating safer highways and roads for all commuters.