New industry guidelines released for in-vehicle digital radio visuals for drivers’ safety
As cars get more high-tech and screen sizes grow, the body behind one of the world’s most utilised in-car platform has taken the lead to ensure the changes are not encroaching on driver safety.WorldDAB, the global industry organisation responsible for defining DAB+ digital radio standards have released detailed guidelines for car makers and digital radio broadcasters to ensure that the visuals and text shown on in-vehicle infotainment screens minimise any potential distraction for drivers.
The new Driver Distraction guidelines have been produced with input from both the automotive and broadcast sectors, to ensure displays are safe for drivers while still providing the information they expect to see on their infotainment units. Any time a driver has their eyes off the road, it impacts their reaction time on the road.
The guidelines cover four key areas for in-vehicle visuals including legibility, relevance, frequency and Local legislation.
If the content isn't legible, the driver is distracted trying to understand it. The entire image, including text, should be understandable with a one second glance by the driver.
When designing visuals, radio stations and car brands need to validate against the physical size and location of a typical display which is usually about 50-80cm from the driver's eyes. While at night, the maximum brightness of visuals any screen visual should reduce to 60%.
Updating visual content also acts as a driver distraction so broadcasters should provide content that is unique and the most helpful to the driver. This should not be done more frequently than every 20 seconds.
Updates that occur more frequently than every 20 seconds should not be shown to the driver. For example, radio stations shouldn’t cycle through the information that's already shown on the display such as the station name and current date and time.
Local legislation in each jurisdiction may be more constraining than the guidelines outlined by WorldDAB and will override them by default.
Broadcast radio continues to dominate as the most preferred source of in-car entertainment across the globe, according to the recent Car Buyers Survey. The international study found that the “most desired radio features include voice controls and content information” with 90% of respondents saying that broadcast radio should be standard in every vehicle.
Related: Vehicle infotainment systems found to be more distracting than texting while driving
Related: Five things we like (and don’t like) about Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
Related: Five cars with massive infotainment screens
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