Advanced Driving Hub

akirk wrote:if my phone is in the boot - and wirelessly talking to the head unit to push apple car play onto the head unit - am I using the phone or the head unit...

You are using both.

mainbeam wrote:

akirk wrote:if my phone is in the boot - and wirelessly talking to the head unit to push apple car play onto the head unit - am I using the phone or the head unit...

You are using both.

But how does anyone know / have evidence ? How can it be prosecuted as I could be just talking directly to the head unit which also has voice control...
Alasdair

...and that's the problem with enforcement. If you have a crash, then your phone could be investigated - but it's a bit late then.

About those touch screens...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49319450

jont- wrote:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49320473
I know we've done this before and even had similar research posted, so interesting to see it in the news. Personally I think more legislation is a waste of time since enforcement is none existent, and in any case I'd rather see drivers prosecuted for DWDCA (if that's the problem) instead of another specific offence.

Would it change the behaviour of those on here who admit to hands-free use?

More (of the same)...

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/?id=49298

Is there a significant difference between having a conversation using a hands-free phone interface and having a conversation with someone who is sitting behind the driver?

Gareth wrote:Is there a significant difference between having a conversation using a hands-free phone interface and having a conversation with someone who is sitting behind the driver?

the general consensus seems to be yes - because an in car conversation co-party will automatically pause when they see the drive focusing on the lorry heading at them down the wrong side of a dual-carriageway... whereas the person the other end of the phone will continue to witter on...

Alasdair

I've known passengers who appear to have no idea what the driver is dealing with and, as per my question, a person sitting behind the driver?

akirk wrote:

Gareth wrote:Is there a significant difference between having a conversation using a hands-free phone interface and having a conversation with someone who is sitting behind the driver?

the general consensus seems to be yes - because an in car conversation co-party will automatically pause when they see the drive focusing on the lorry heading at them down the wrong side of a dual-carriageway... whereas the person the other end of the phone will continue to witter on...

Actually, no.

That is very often said but the fact of the matter is that the passenger will not always stop talking when something happens that requires the driver's attention, and, if the driver is "engaged" in the conversation with the passenger then it is highly likely that they will miss important detail. I agree that a passenger, who also happens to be a driver, and who is also paying at least passing attention to the journey, is likely to stop talking or disengage when the hazard density increases to the extent that they feel you should be reacting to something. But that is not always the case.

This was a recurring theme and itself a topic of in-car conversation during a road-trip this year. Both myself and my co-driver experienced instances where we missed blindingly obvious, and in one case very important, things simply because we happened to be "concentrating" on some element of what the other person was saying at that moment.

The conclusion that we both came to was that you can engage in a conversation - telephone, in-person, whatever, it doesn't matter - or you can engage with the driving. You cannot do both effectively. One of them will always suffer.

Sure, thousands of people do it every day and they manage not to hit anything. But, to say that they never missed anything is complete tosh and when that thing that they missed is the most important thing that they should have seen you have a problem.

The book that I linked to earlier provides a fascinating insight to how you process visual information and how easily fooled or distracted every one of us can be. There is a great deal of research on distracted driving out there but, unfortunately, it is largely ignored or simply dismissed.

Sleights of Mind

As one of the reviews says: "Underlines how our perception of reality - far from being a reliable resource - is at best a series of shortcuts and presumptions shaped by evolution."

Humans are not evolved to deal with the information overload that we are subjected to as we go through our daily lives. To cope, we shortcut, interpolate, guess and assume. We put it all together and we say that seeing is believing and that we know. Well guess what? It ain't and you don't.

Multi-tasking is a myth; humans cannot concentrate on more that one thing a time. It may look like they can but in reality they are just switching attention, very effectively, but that is all that it is. It is time-slicing and some people are much better at it than others.

Gareth wrote:I've known passengers who appear to have no idea what the driver is dealing with and, as per my question, a person sitting behind the driver?

Yep, my bloody girlfriend for one.

I used to frequently have to tell her to shut up when I was driving. Luckily she's not the sort to take offence and now she gets it...