I really can't envision how anyone could think these toys would do anything other than distract drivers.
Truth is driving requires one's full attention and any distraction is going to reduce safety, even in a self driving car.
I don't really find it remarkable that it's worse than pot, or alcohol within the legal limit though. They didn't offer much info on the weed thing and that surely depends on how "high" one gets, but if they kept it within the same range as the legal limit of alcohol (a small toke or two) that's no surprise at all.
I worked for years designing and building custom cars. Honestly, that giant screen in a Tesla is the craziest thing I've ever seen in a car, and I've helped build some pretty crazy cars.
> Honestly, that giant screen in a Tesla is the craziest thing I've ever seen in a car
Same here. I cannot understand how people are fine with it. I once had to drive a car who had it's GPS display further down (where the AC controls usually is, basically) so you had to glance down towards the shifting stick to be able to see where you are going. That feels like a similarly crazy idea. I'm lucky my car has a display that is as far up it can be without blocking the view out of the windshield.
You should actually test drive one. I've yet to meet an owner ask for more buttons or knobs. In fact, it's the opposite. With the new NLP voice commands, eyes and hands stand where they need to be.
When I was growing up my father was a "body man". He repaired wrecked cars. There was rarely a time when he had no work. He took me to his shop from the time I was born, so I grew up around crashed cars. I started working with him when I was 14 years old. By that time he was building custom cars in Hollywood, CA and was running George Barris's shop and I worked there and learned the trades and went on to run my own shop until I was in my 30s. By then I was building advanced driving systems for the severely handicapped. Mostly quadriplegics with very limited mobility who used power wheelchairs. We developed "Zero effort driving systems". Quite a few of my customers had been injured in automobile crashes.
All that is to say I have quite a bit of experience with people who've been in accidents. The fact is they can happen to any of us who drive or are in a car. But there are people who get into lots of them and it's accurate to say many accidents are the cause of distracted drivers, and that's often true even when it's not the driver's "fault". Accidents can be avoided by attentive drivers.
So the question to ask is "do touch screen displays increase driver distraction" and it's hard for me to imagine that huge screen in a Tesla does not. If a driver used it only once while driving that would have to qualify.
When we add to that the false sense of safety of a "self driving car" we further decrease the driver's tendency to pay full attention to the safe operation of a vehicle.
I worry about me making a mistake while driving, but not near as much as I worry about others on the road with me.
All that said, the Tesla is an amazing example of what tech can do in that arena and I admire what they've done. But I'd never put my or anyone else's safety in jeopardy by using that tech on public roads while I was in the driver's seat.
I have and I find it absolutely bewildering how someone is fine with a touchscreen on any car, I'm of the opinion it should be illegal, and seems the industry/regulation is catching up with that now. It's impossible to learn where to press because there is no physical buttons to learn by.
Meanwhile, my car has physical buttons for everything and it took me about a week before I could control and navigate everything without looking. I could never do that with a touchscreen. I've had a smartphone since 2010 and still I cannot even type without looking, been practicing that for 10 years!
> my car has physical buttons for everything and it took me about a week before I could control and navigate everything without looking.
> It's impossible to learn where to press because there is no physical buttons to learn by.
You just pointed out glaring disadvantages with buttons/knobs. Situational Touchscreen Controls + Natural Language Processing voice commands is far superior. It's also more intuitive.
I can literally tell it "Turn on driver seat heaters to 3 bacons" and it will set the seat heater to the max setting (1-3).
I agree with you. But unfortunately the majority of the car users on the road aren't prepared to be "drivers". They don't like driving and just want to be somewhere quickly with minimal effort. Any extra distractions, conveniences and safety features that further hide away the responsibility are welcome. If you happen to be in an older, smaller car or, gasp, a naked human outside of a car then god help you.
Truth is driving requires one's full attention and any distraction is going to reduce safety, even in a self driving car.
I don't really find it remarkable that it's worse than pot, or alcohol within the legal limit though. They didn't offer much info on the weed thing and that surely depends on how "high" one gets, but if they kept it within the same range as the legal limit of alcohol (a small toke or two) that's no surprise at all.
I worked for years designing and building custom cars. Honestly, that giant screen in a Tesla is the craziest thing I've ever seen in a car, and I've helped build some pretty crazy cars.