US safety body wants to control in-car phone use

The USA's National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NTSA) has issued new voluntary guidelines aimed at restraining driver distraction from mobile phones and other portable devices.

The guidelines, which apply to device makers and app developers such as Apple, Google and many others, recommend that companies design portable devices that can be connected to in-car systems, and be operated using the vehicle's user interface.

Furthermore, the non-binding guidelines also recommend disabling certain smartphone functions when paired with a vehicle — such as texting, internet browsing, watching videos and displaying social media content.

The directive from North America's most powerful automotive safety body comes as car-makers continue to install smartphone interrogation systems such as Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto in an increasing number of vehicles.

The systems display a simplified version of Android and Apple smartphone interfaces on vehicle touch-screens and offer limited access to some applications and functions such as maps, text messaging and phone usage.

The organisation says that 10 per cent of the 35,092 fatal US crashes that occurred in 2015 involved at least one distracted driver, resulting in 3477 fatalities, up nine per cent from 2014.

The NHTSA says distraction was also a factor in 16 per cent of the 5.6 million non-fatal crashes that occurred in the US in 2014, the most recent data available.

However, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, Gary Shapiro, called the guidelines “de-facto” regulations that defy calls from law-makers for the Obama administration to refrain from issuing new regulatory actions until the next administration.

“This mob doesn’t have the authority to dictate the design of smartphone apps and other devices used in cars – its legal jurisdiction begins and ends with motor vehicle equipment,” Shapiro said in a statement.

“Under their vision, they would have the influence to control the design of technology products down to the fitness tracker worm on a driver. Such a vast and extreme expansion of this organisation’s authority, if it were to happen, would have to be explicitly granted by Congress.”

But the US Department of Transportation (DOT) says the new guidelines, which propose a smartphone ‘driver mode’ with simplified interface and limited functionality, will save lives.

“Far too many are put at risk by drivers who are distracted by their cellphones,” said Anthony Foxx, US Transportation secretary.

“These commonsense guidelines, grounded in the best research available, will help designers of mobile devices build products that cut down on distraction on the road.”