Is Semi-Autonomous Car Technology Making Distracted Driving Worse?

A new report has shown that distracted driving is at an all-time high, which isn’t a surprise. Although semi-autonomous car technology is supposed to make roads safer, is it actually making the distracted driving problem worse?

The number of licensed drivers in the United States has grown to more than 222 million, which is a huge shift from 167 million licensed drivers in 1990. There are a lot more drivers on the road now with a lot more gadgets to distract them, which naturally increases the potential for collisions from distracted driving.

In response to the problem, the government has laws penalizing distracted driving, and automakers have attempted to curb it as well by offering smarter and safer in-car technology as well as driver assistance features aimed at making the roads safer. Whether or not these measures are successful is up for debate and some even say that the semi-autonomous tech enables unsafe behavior.

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A recent distracted driving report by Esurance (an Allstate company) sheds light on a few critical issues. The study showed that although 91 percent of surveyed drivers believed texting while driving was dangerous, a substantial 53 percent still engaged in it daily. Even more alarming, 59 percent of those who claim to be rarely distracted still admit to talking on the phone while driving.

The survey made sure to include drivers with driver assist features installed in their vehicles as well as Bluetooth technology, which enables drivers via voice prompts to make and answer calls and sometimes reply to texts without touching or looking at their phone.

Still, many motorists with Bluetooth can be seen using their phones while driving, likely because voice recognition is a far-from-perfect technology and Bluetooth can’t post to Instagram or check out your Tinder matches. Why do so many people use their gadgets while driving when they all know it’s unsafe?

Stephanie Braun, director of Connected Cars at Esurance, says checking phones is a compulsion. “Some of these drivers have a relationship with their phones that could be bordering on a slight addiction. For some, a phone is a lifeline of some sorts and even constantly touching it physically several times during the day becomes an automatic response. These drivers just continue to do it without even thinking.”

That compulsion combines with an over-reliance on driver assistance tech to make distracted driving worse because some drivers incorrectly put all the responsibility of not getting into a crash on the car. Driver assistance tech like lane-keep assist, automatic emergency braking, and adaptive cruise control are supposed to reduce stress during a commute or help in an emergency, not take over driving responsibilities completely. Many people, however, are misusing it, seeing it as a free pass to not pay full attention while driving, when it should really only be used as a safety net. Having this driver assistance tech is not an excuse for not paying full attention when driving at all times.

Drivers are clearly not understanding the limitations of the tech. “Owners of vehicles with override features should pay proper attention to disclaimers placed in the vehicle’s owners manual,” Braun says. “There are excerpts clearly stating the limitations of these features and [drivers must] adjust their driving behavior accordingly.”

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Another theory is that the driver assistance tech is the distraction. Sometimes, the systems aren’t very user-friendly, which can itself prove quite distracting when something is beeping at you and you don’t know what it’s indicating, or if the physical controls are not easy to use or are hidden from a clear line of sight.

Additionally, some of these systems can overreact to completely appropriate and normal driving maneuvers and inadvertently force you to wrestle control of the vehicle back from these systems.

Drivers need to clearly understand the purpose of this technology as well as its limitations. Regardless of whether or not your vehicle comes equipped with driver assistance systems, the main responsibility of safe driving rests squarely on the human driver. Autonomous technology still has a long way to go before we can rely on it completely to keep drivers safe.