Car Connectivity
Business Technology | March 28, 2012
New vehicles like the Ford Edge, Lincoln MKX, and the Audi A6 enable passengers to connect to the Internet from the front seat. These Online connections over Wi-Fi or 3G networks allow motorists to enjoy streaming video, audio, spoken text messaging, and current traffic information. We typically view tech advancements as a positive. But connectivity in the car begs an important question: Is this a good thing?
Challenges of the Connected Car
The connected car is a little problematic. Everyone knows that drivers become distracted when they text or chat on cell phones while driving. This can lead to accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that 80 % of all traffic accidents involve some variety of driver inattention within three seconds of a crash. If texting and cell phones are distracting to drivers, just think of how distracted motorists will be when either they or a passenger is viewing streaming video of a cat falling off a table.
Does Tech Distract Drivers?
Clearly drivers should focus on driving, and many things like eating, talking on their phone, even talking to a companion within the car can be a distraction. These distractions can lead to serious accidents. This reason is in part why the notion of having more connected cars doesn’t necessarily make people jump for joy.
Browsing the Web Inside Your Car
Regardless of how we feel regarding this, unless laws are put into place preventing it, people will soon have the ability to stream YouTube videos, Google an answer to a question, and correspond via social media sites within their cars. Maybe the next phase ought to be to increase the self-driving aspects to cars; but perhapsthat would remove us even more to the world around us.
As we said before, advancements in technology ordinarily have us excited. But the biggest anxiety about the connected car is that, will raising the volume of distractions increase the amount of accidents? Car connectivity will bring lots of pleasure to travelers, specifically on long commutes, but it’s essential that drivers recognize the need to stay focused on the road no matter how adorable that video of a baby monkey is.
New vehicles like the Ford Edge, Lincoln MKX, and the Audi A6 enable passengers to connect to the Internet from the front seat. These Online connections over Wi-Fi or 3G networks allow motorists to enjoy streaming video, audio, spoken text messaging, and current traffic information. We typically view tech advancements as a positive. But connectivity in the car begs an important question: Is this a good thing?
Challenges of the Connected Car
The connected car is a little problematic. Everyone knows that drivers become distracted when they text or chat on cell phones while driving. This can lead to accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that 80 % of all traffic accidents involve some variety of driver inattention within three seconds of a crash. If texting and cell phones are distracting to drivers, just think of how distracted motorists will be when either they or a passenger is viewing streaming video of a cat falling off a table.
Does Tech Distract Drivers?
Clearly drivers should focus on driving, and many things like eating, talking on their phone, even talking to a companion within the car can be a distraction. These distractions can lead to serious accidents. This reason is in part why the notion of having more connected cars doesn’t necessarily make people jump for joy.
Browsing the Web Inside Your Car
Regardless of how we feel regarding this, unless laws are put into place preventing it, people will soon have the ability to stream YouTube videos, Google an answer to a question, and correspond via social media sites within their cars. Maybe the next phase ought to be to increase the self-driving aspects to cars; but perhapsthat would remove us even more to the world around us.
As we said before, advancements in technology ordinarily have us excited. But the biggest anxiety about the connected car is that, will raising the volume of distractions increase the amount of accidents? Car connectivity will bring lots of pleasure to travelers, specifically on long commutes, but it’s essential that drivers recognize the need to stay focused on the road no matter how adorable that video of a baby monkey is.