On the phone whilst driving

[voipio]

I used to cycle in London, and the countryside around it, and at speed, as age and fitness were on my side. I always stopped at traffic lights that were on red. It just felt like being an arrogant tw*t, not to do so.

 

[MetalMonkey]

Quick question to those saying the touch screens are dangerous, any of you saying that actually driven a car with one?

I'm about 11k miles and so far have avoided crashing, killing a pedestrian or being so distracted I've driven over a squirrel

Yes, in fact I fitted a touch screen back in the noughties when car PC's and big custom audio builds were still a thing, which I think was before they were even a twinkle in elons eyes.

It was a cool toy, and we used to play about integrating features and making different user interfaces but it just never was as intuitive as physical buttons which you can operate by touch and muscle memory alone without looking or thinking.

A friend has a pretty nice all in one touch android head unit fitted, which has the advantage of offering an additional row of physical buttons to operate quick access features which I thought worked well.

However, in my experience it still isn't as quick and requires more mental processing than having a dedicated control for a dedicated purpose in a fixed location.

I also find driving at night annoying with any sort of screen backlight. Less so in brightly lot towns.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

What really annoys me is people who ring and ring and ring...repeatedly half a dozen times while driving.

...thinking the worst you pull over only to find it's nothing important. I have one mate who does it a lot!

 

[Morrisman]

Most modern cars send and receive data!
But I see you can use them if on a mount - so in theory as long as you don't HOLD a phone you can still send texts as long as it is mounted properly

I once followed a guy who was tapping away at his dash mounted phone.... in the German lane at 70mph, on a basically empty M6. I was on my bike and gave him a blast on my horn, he swung over one lane left immediately and slowed down.

Yes, he could well have slammed on the brakes and wiped me out, but I wasn't really thinking that far ahead.


I've often heard that it's not the physical handling of the phone that causes safety issues, when making calls, but the concentration required, and apparently it is as distracting as drink driving, 'tests have shown'....

I've never actually tried using a phone when driving a car, but if I can have a conversation with a person sat next to me, how does that differ to a conversation with someone on the other end of the phone line? What's next, no talking while driving?

 

[fizzy]

I once followed a guy who was tapping away at his dash mounted phone.... in the German lane at 70mph, on a basically empty M6. I was on my bike and gave him a blast on my horn, he swung over one lane left immediately and slowed down.

Yes, he could well have slammed on the brakes and wiped me out, but I wasn't really thinking that far ahead.


I'be often heard that it's not the physical handling of the phone that causes safety issues, when making calls, but the concentration required, and apparently it is as distracting as drink driving, 'tests have shown'....

I've never actually tried using a phone when driving a car, but if I can have a conversation with a person sat next to me, how does that differ to a conversation with someone on the other end of the phone line? What's next, no talking while driving?

I agree. A car full of screaming kids has to be the biggest distraction of all!

 

[Parm]

Both phones go into centre console armrest. Never ever touched. Both connected to car via Bluetooth, always on the phone when driving but always via the cars controls. Use the vehicle in built sat nav system

 

[Maker]

A cyclist went past my place in the dark, going fast down hill, no lights, sitting upright, both hands on his phone looking down texting, as he approached a roundabout.

No idea how he managed to avoid an 'accident', maybe he thought he was being sensible as he didn't have headphones on.

I'll never understand the all black thing. For the last few months I've cycled to and from work in the dark every day, the number of people I pass wearing grey or black with no lights astounds me, it's like they want to be ran over.

 

[bricol]

Anything taking your attention away from the road is potentially dangerous - a moments inattention, a lane swapping swerve on the very northern parts of the M6 at 2am on a Saturday morning might very well just be a "whoa" moment for you alone . . . do it at 2pm on weekday and it might be road closed, air ambulance, half-day out with the undertakers . . .

So while its possible to do all sorts of things while controlling a tonne plus of moving metal and plastic, being distracted from that task in any way isn't good - I'd told passengers to shut up, turned the radio down etc before now.

 

[bricol]

I'll never understand the all black thing. For the last few months I've cycled to and from work in the dark every day, the number of people I pass wearing grey or black with no lights astounds me, it's like they want to be ran over.

Last weekend, 9am Saturday morning, pretty foggy, heading to my mums house - the number of white/silver/grey cars with no lights on . . and then of course, the other way entirely, as soon as there's a hint of mist four miles away . . . fog lights on . . .

 

[PhillipM]

Mine goes in the centre console and isn't touched until I'm parked up

The nav thing has a lot of discretion, I don't do that anymore but I used to

Same, and I'm a fairly handy driver even if I do blow my own trumpet, but I don't even take handsfree calls in the car unless absolutely necessary. And then I usually pull up anyway.

 

[Justme]

Both phones go into centre console armrest. Never ever touched. Both connected to car via Bluetooth, always on the phone when driving but always via the cars controls. Use the vehicle in built sat nav system

Get a dual sim phone & stop looking like a drug dealer

 

[DennisCA]

What I don't understand is given how dangerous it is to use a smart phone when driving, automakers keep putting in more and more touchscreens in cars which are as dangerous because they give no tactile feedback and force you to look at the screen to get something done.

 

[bump]

Get a dual sim phone & stop looking like a drug dealer

Nah, work phone is just for work. It's their device and the data ownership is cut and dried.

 

[PhillipM]

What I don't understand is given how dangerous it is to use a smart phone when driving, automakers keep putting in more and more touchscreens in cars which are as dangerous because they give no tactile feedback and force you to look at the screen to get something done.

There's a lot of backlash about that at the moment with plenty of studies supporting the return to physical buttons for common functions, as it does contribute to driver distraction. UI and tactile design is a huge field after all there's a reason buttons with tactile feedback were always favoured in vehicles.

 

[Seadog]

What I don't understand is given how dangerous it is to use a smart phone when driving, automakers keep putting in more and more touchscreens in cars which are as dangerous because they give no tactile feedback and force you to look at the screen to get something done.

That's because someone thought that the automotive industry should be allowed to police itself.

 

[daleyd]

There's a lot of backlash about that at the moment with plenty of studies supporting the return to physical buttons for common functions, as it does contribute to driver distraction. UI and tactile design is a huge field after all there's a reason buttons with tactile feedback were always favoured in vehicles.

Totally agree - I design HMI for work and for a control panel it’s really easy to add another button to a HMI, whereas a physical button needs holes drilling, wiring, inputs etc

But that’s on a control panel in a factory where your not moving and it’s the only thing you need to concentrate on. in a car physical buttons win every time, but stick everything in a screen and I’d bet it reduces the wiring and assembly times dramatically.

 

[fizzy]

Some of the insignias I drove had a good system. A command knob/wheel for scrolling through and push down to select. Then they replaced it with a stupid mouse pad affair.

 

[Maker]

Totally agree - I design HMI for work and for a control panel it’s really easy to add another button to a HMI, whereas a physical button needs holes drilling, wiring, inputs etc

I've long suspected part of the reason everything (thermostats, washing machines, etc) has an app these days is because it's cheaper and easier to design a UI with a high res colour touch screen than it is to do it with physical buttons and LED indicators or an alphanumeric display.

 

[daleyd]

Some of the insignias I drove had a good system. A command knob/wheel for scrolling through and push down to select. Then they replaced it with a stupid mouse pad affair.

The bmw I drive was excellent with a big scroll wheel to select functions, but could still be quite distracting when you have to look away to the screen. The heater controls on my 5 series were still discrete buttons which were easy to use, you only needed the menu system for stuff that you didn’t need to adjust on the move anyway, or the radio functions which were quite intuitive even using the i drive system. It was probably the best car Ive had in terms of ergonomics.

 

[daleyd]

I've long suspected part of the reason everything (thermostats, washing machines, etc) has an app these days is because it's cheaper and easier to design a UI with a high res colour touch screen than it is to do it with physical buttons and LED indicators or an alphanumeric display.

I’ve just done 4 big control panels for materials testing in a lab, their previous ones had a jumble of panel mounted controllers, buttons, potentiometers and indicators - we’ve replaced them all with a big HMI - the only buttons they have are an e stop and a couple of reset buttons.

The beauty is if they want anything adding in the future it doesn’t need any extra wiring, cut outs etc. It’s also much less confusing to look at, with all the info easily displayed. I’m not sure it totally works as well in cars, but there’s likely no going back now!