Touchscreens, voice controls, console-mounted clickwheels, touchpads?with all the different systems out there, which kind offers a safe, minimally distracting interface" None. That’s the distressing finding according to new research from AAA.
New cars of all categories place excessive demands on a driver’s mental workload, and automakers don’t block enough non-driving features while their vehicles are in motion, the study concludes. As a follow-up to a 2014 study conducted by the University of Utah that compared automaker systems and Apple Siri, AAA conducted a deeper dive of 30 cars with triple the number of test drivers. Researchers recruited 120 drivers with a median age of 25 to monitor how they reacted to inputting navigation directions, reading and sending text messages, dialing phone numbers, and operating the stereo. Each driver repeated those tasks using voice controls, the touchscreen or buttons on the center stack, and controls on the center console over a two-mile stretch of road at 25 mph. (Before you judge the results or become defensive, read the report’s 104 pages to see how tightly controlled and thorough the researchers were. It’s more detailed than anything the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has conducted.)
None of the 2017 model cars?30 pickups, large SUVs, crossovers, sedans, and hatchbacks?had an interface that AAA considered “low demand.” AAA found most drivers took more than 24 seconds ...