Humans behind the wheel are easily distracted by tweets and facebook updates. The answer? Let the car do the driving while you stay connected
THINK about it for a moment. Isn't it remarkable that a human can safely direct a tonne or more of speeding metal through a melee of other, similarly hurtling, metal boxes without crashing? And all while travelling at 20 times the speed of a human under their own propulsion. Yet that happens every time any of the world's millions of drivers get behind the wheel of a car.
Of course, a host of conventions and inventions have made this state of affairs possible, from the highway code to windscreen wipers and anti-lock brakes. In the century or so since Ford's Model T took to the roads, the driver's job has become ever easier, and cars ever safer. The one thing that has stayed the same is the driver's capacity to observe and react. Now that too is changing – as is the nature of driving.
Today, making cars safer is in large part about making them smarter: capable of directing themselves in tricky situations, whether that means nudging into an awkward parking spot or keeping their distance from other vehicles. Cars can also tell if you're fit to drive, by detecting whether you're drowsy – or drunk.
That should reduce the human factors behind many accidents. But there is a catch. Cars are getting smarter in other ways, too, with advanced communications and interactive features, such as giant touchscreens. The bad news is that this adds up to dangerously distracted drivers (see "Hands on the wheel, mind on the road – not cyberspace").
The good news is that cars are almost smart enough to take over from humans entirely. The best response to driver distraction – other than renouncing modernity when at the wheel – may be to let them get on with it, leaving the driver free to chat, tweet or watch TV. Self-driving cars are on the cusp of mass acceptance: if they prove safer on the roads than we do, they may be cheaper to run and insure – enough, perhaps, to persuade all but the most avid petrolheads to let go of the wheel.
Inevitably, this sophistication creates new vulnerabilities: cars are becoming hackable (see "$25 gadget lets hackers seize control of a car"), and their growing dependence on communication means snafus could cause chaos. Distracted drivers might not be a concern for much longer. But perhaps we will soon need to start worrying about distracted cars.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Don't think and drive"
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