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Automotive Industry

Death By Distraction - Statistical Data Included

Automotive Industries, May, 2000 by Gerry Kobe

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Sources: NHTSA, UMTRI, Center for Urban Transportation Research (University of South Rodda), National Police Agency of Japan.

Future Shock

Here's what Cadillac hopes will occupy your attention in its future cars

(1) Head-up display

(2) Night Vision system

(3) Obstacle alert

(4) Rear vision cameras

(5) Steering wheel controls

(6) Adaptive cruise control

(7) E-mail access

(8) Navigation system

(9) OnStar (not pictured)

Cellular phones (four total) Rear seat DVD and entertainment Headrest speakers Front and rear radar

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The first in-car radios were installed in the early 1920s. By 1930, laws were being proposed in both Massachusetts and St. Louis to prohibit their use while driving. According to automotive historian Michael Lamm, "Opponents of car radios argued that they distracted drivers and caused accidents, that tuning them took a driver's attention away from the road, and that music could lull a driver to sleep." They also claimed that radios played in open cars distracted the drivers of other cars.

Lamm notes that a trade group, The Radio Manufacturers Assoc., was formed to combat any type of car radio regulation. At a February 1930 public hearing on in-car radio use in Massachusetts, the RMA argued that radios were actually a safety feature-they prevented accidents by keeping drivers awake. The proposal to ban radio use was killed by a landslide vote.

Automakers and radio manufacturers have long sought to take the physical distraction out of tuning an in-car audio system. The first push-button radios appeared in the late 1930s. Their pre-sets made selecting a local radio station (one with a strong signal) quicker than spinning a dial, and it helped keep the driver's right hand on the wheel.

Around the same time, arch-rivals Delco and Philco introduced their Selectronic and Rolo-matic radios. Both units featured a button on the floor board which the driver could tap to change the radio station. In 1942, Delco's new "Signal Seeking" feature automatically homed in on the strongest AM radio signal. Ford's Adjust-O-Matic and the Buick Sonomatic, based on the same principles, soon followed.

But new audio distractions continued to appear. In the late 1950s, Chrysler and RCA both tried to cash in on the 45-rpm record craze by putting phonographs into the automobile. Chrysler's underdash 16 2/3-inch record player was called the "Highway Hi-Fi," but its rudimentary suspension couldn't possibly cushion the tone arm from even the slightest road shocks. Needles would bounce and skate all over the record. Not surprisingly, few were sold.

As the music industry, propelled by rock 'n'roll, boomed in the 1960s, pre-programmed entertainment for drivers began to take over. First came the four-track tape, then the eight-track, which was quickly surpassed in quality and popularity by the cassette. Fiddling with the radio while underway gave way to fiddling with tapes and tape players. The compact disc, which entered the fray in the 1980s, brings with it the joy of stuffing a remote-mounted multidisc player with hours of listening. Or, more likely, it challenges your dexterity.

Automotive Industry

Death By Distraction - Statistical Data Included

Automotive Industries, May, 2000 by Gerry Kobe

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