Gadgetory

I'll tell you to be honest driver distractions been around as long as driving some forms of it you get at the drive-through window other forms and spring from your loins but the kinds everyone's talking about today come from silicon brought an in-car technology let's learn what those types are how to survive distraction comes in three major forms really Han I and mine that's about the order we've recognized them and about the order of their difficulty to solve now of course going back to the days when cell phones first proliferated everybody was carrying him in the car you were freaking people out because you were doing this you had one hand off the wheel so of course the answer became a rash of hands-free laws you can go hands-free several ways bluetooth headsets are common and convenient built-in in car bluetooth hands-free that's almost universal in new cars today or you can add it on or call me an underachiever my favorite is still the wired earbud sounds the best costs the least and nothing to charge but you know what after the move to hands-free in some places accident rates actually went up so we learn the baby hands-free wasn't the issue we've been doing that practically since we started driving and then the attention moved on so now eyes on the road became the new rallying cry as hands on the wheel was kind of proved to be a red herring let's face it you can have both hands friendly on the wheel and still plow right in the back of someone because you're not looking that way this is where voice command technology gets a lot of love telephone navigation car makers began to offer it and then to make it good which unfortunately happened in that order in car voice recognition doesn't usually command all the parts of your car and it seldom works as well as what's on your $200 smartphone 235 second street san francisco california Solutions buying a new car look for one that offers full command over nav media calling even climate control seek out a car with app support usually only in the newest cars but it allows apps to be on the dash in a car friendly way that reduces distraction if it's done well or just clip your phone to the dash use its voice command and it's car mode screen so finally after worrying about hands and eyes and all kinds of peripheral stuff we finally got around to what it's really all about mind on the task that's the elephant in the room and also the hardest one to deal with new federal guidelines have tried to measure and shape it with tortured metrics like no more than six key presses per task or 30 characters in a single readout yeah you can punch all kinds of holes and guidelines like that but to my mind they're really about putting carmakers on notice that they are responsible for these new temptations are putting in dash Facebook Twitter movie listings Google search now yes often these are locked out when the car is moving but some manufacturers don't do that solutions really just one here autonomous cars yep cars that drive themselves they aren't that many years away some cars are eighty percent of the way there now like some of the Volvo's that have just about complete driver intervention google has a small well known fleet of self-driving cars that have only had accidents when humans took over and in Nevada they just passed laws to make self-driving cars legal there okay the easy solution to all of this you know what I'm gonna say just put down the phone most of the time turn off the camera and just drive for a while it's actually kind of a refuge you