Touch-screen infotainment raising the road toll

Road safety advocacy groups in the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly concerned at the number of new cars fitted with touchscreen infotainment systems.

Touch-screen devices allowing drivers access to popular social media apps such as Facebook and Twitter are especially ruinous, with operators spending extended periods of time not focussed on the road ahead.

“We need a short, medium and long-term strategy otherwise in 10 to 15 years we will be talking about a much more serious problem than we have at the moment,” Britain’s Institute of Advanced Motorists representative, Kevin Delaney told The Times this week.

Screen sizes of these devices are also a matter contention among the safety advocacy groups and automotive manufactures, and it’s easy to understand why. Devices like Tesla’s touch-screen infotainment system are a whopping 17 inches, allowing even more detailed control over audio and social media apps, and satellite mapping programs.

“Sadly [automotive] marketing people and not the safety people are in the driving seat with this technology. Smartphone apps on the dashboard are a potential death trap,” explained BRAKE spokesperson, Gary Rae.

While manufacturers may argue that the majority of the infotainment systems can be operated by voice command, according to British motor insurance provider Thatcham, 90 per cent of accidents caused in the UK occur because of the driver being distracted.

Other manufacturer’s multimedia devices allow drivers to do things like; read the news, access videos on YouTube and read and send text messages.