Car screens reduce responsiveness more than a heavy joint

In the past, a car was defined by its cornering position, the smoothness of the eight-cylinder and acceleration. In the era of the electric car, these criteria hardly play a role anymore, which makes connectivity and infotainment on board all the more important. The driver is informed and amused by huge screens. In some models, they protrude inelegantly like a giant iPad into the interior, in others their shape is integrated into the structure of the car and stretches from one side to the other.

This is also the way to prepare for the era of autonomous vehicles. If the passengers are no longer required to steer or brake at all, or if they are no longer able to do so due to the lack of a steering wheel, a car trip quickly becomes boring. Then the passengers have to be entertained. The only problem is, there are still no autonomous vehicles and the drivers still have to keep an eye on the traffic and react at lightning speed – actually.

Deliberate distraction

And that’s getting harder given the flashing screens, says the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. In a recent study, the foundation found that changing the destination in the navigation system absorbs the driver’s attention for 40 seconds. With 50 km / h you have then covered 750 meters. If you choose a new music, the reaction speed is reduced even more than if you had smoked a strong joint before.

“Today’s infotainment systems can be just as distracting – if not more – than personal electronic devices,” said Jennifer Homendy, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Accident figures can only be estimated because nobody voluntarily admits because of the criminal liability that they were absorbed in music menus before the accident.

In principle, the built-in systems should be less distracting than the – forbidden – look at the cell phone. The problem arises, however, because people use the infotainment system much more often and without a guilty conscience. In addition, more and more functions and nested menus beckon.

Sure would be unsexy

The manufacturers are in a bind. From the point of view of security, it would be right to keep the offers spartanly simple and to structure them optically simple and clear. But the carmakers also know that infotainment systems are decisive when it comes to buying with younger customers and in Asia. The customer will be more impressed by an overwhelming impression than by a sparse security design.

When it comes to road holding, safety and braking, cars are perfect today; no normal driver pushes his car to its limits in curves. The only difference between the models was their design. The infotainment system gives them the opportunity to set themselves apart from the competition

“They all try to define their own worlds,” says user experience designer Cliff Kuang. “The more complex infotainment systems become, the less people understand them.” The “own worlds” also mean that the surfaces differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, even if the same technology is behind them. So there are no reliable standards that can be transferred from one car to another. And that is wanted. One could say positively: The interface amazes and explores the driver. But you can also say that it confuses and overwhelms him.

No orientation

When building a classic car cockpit, a lot of effort was made to ensure that the shape, material and sounds of buttons and switches spoke to the driver and that every action provided tactile feedback. So you knew what you were doing without looking. There is no such thing with the touchscreen. Every single action must be guided and controlled by the eyes, because the glass of the screen gives no feedback to the fingertips.

If you look at security, strict norms would be necessary for the duration of the distraction and for operating standards. However, should the previous US recommendation that no action be distracted for longer than two seconds be implemented, more complex operations would no longer be possible.

Those.