Convenienced to Death

Any time I drive my car, I'm amazed at how many people blatantly ignore the prohibition against using handheld cell phones while driving. Of course, that's not the worst of it. People are apparently texting while driving or shaking their phone using their Urbanspoon app in an attempt to locate a good restaurant while going 65 on the highway while also activating GoogleMaps for directions. It's out of control and I worry about my friends or family becoming a victim in an accident where this is a root cause. Heck, I'm terrified that a teenage texting driver will cut a corner in my neighborhood as my kids ride their bikes.

In full disclosure, I'm not totally innocent. I do have an integrated Bluetooth speakerphone system in my car so my calls are routed through the speakers and steering wheel control when I'm within 10 feet of my running car, and there are occasions when I browse messages when I'm stopping at a red light. I duly note the studies that insist that using hands-free devices don't solve the problem around distracted driving, but just make it slightly more tolerable.

In a recent conference in Detroit, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety czar David Strickland became a voice of reason when he told business leaders in the automotive and electronics industries that companies in these fields need to be really careful that they don't pursue convenience at the expense of safety. He said:

I'm just putting everyone on notice. A car is not a mobile device. I'm not in the business of helping people tweet better. I'm not in the business of helping people post on Facebook better. It's okay not to be connected when you're operating a car. I'm not going to dispute that people want these services. They do.

I'm glad that he has such principles, because when it comes to automobile convenience, we may very well need someone like David Strickland to save us from ourselves. I'm a self-acknowledged Crackberry addict, and my Torch is constantly by my side if not slid open communicating with someone or browsing information. If there's anything that will allow me to effectively stay connected while in transit, I'm there.

Unfortunately, most of us have lost the love for driving. I have friends who are car lovers (some of which have some very nice cars) who take a great deal of pleasure just out of sitting in vehicle and maneuvering it through a route, feeling the car adjust as it makes turns and hearing the engine hum as it accelerates. For the rest of us, we'd like to turn the car into our living room, and the automakers are accommodating that. What used to be a simple radio has now evolved into full-fledged "entertainment and convenience" packages. Widescreen video screens show Blu-ray movies, which will certainly soon include On-Demand choices from Netflix personalized for each passenger in the vehicle.

Of course, the driver is the other person who will need to be entertained and "convenienced", and that's where things get dangerous. The Bluetooth handsfree technology and the JBL stereo system already make it clear that taking a driver's audio sense away is fine, so will we see a proliferation of speech-to-text and text-to-speech technology which will easily allow people to hear and respond to e-mails, tweets and instant messages while driving? At what point does mental distraction become fundamentally dangerous? What is the minimum amount of mindshare that should be given in operating a motor vehicle going 70 miles per hour?

What limits will be placed upon how much visual attention can be taken away? Technology may soon provide "heads up displays" projected on the windshield directly in front of the driver which allow for video news briefs or condensed sports highlights to "pop up" when the vehicle is stopped. Is this the car experience that we want?

Our convenience and entertainment packages are going to get us killed if we're not careful.