Touch screen's in Cars Yes/No?

[screenman]

Good to see Mazda taking an evidence/science lead approach.

More like they could not get it to work well, I do a lot of work for Mazda they are not as reliable as they wish.

 

[icowden]

Not according to the judge
He was looking at the screen not the road, ergo he was distracted by the touchscreen
Define playing? what operation was he attempting to
carry out at the time of the accident.

This is what was reported in the article:-

The Tesla has a physical switch on the indicator stalk to activate the windscreen wipers, but increasing or decreasing their speed requires drivers to tap through options on its touchscreen.
The German court found that this process requires “significantly more attention from the driver” than when operating the windshield wiper with the conventional fittings.

The first statement is wrong as Tesla has voice activation and automatic wipers. At the time of the accident he should have pulled over or used voice activation. The wipers on a Model 3 are automatic and adjust for conditions. Slowing down would also be an option. He could have pushed the button on the wiper stalk also to add a wipe.

From the Beeb:

The higher court disagreed, backing the first judgement. Whether or not the screen was a permanent part of the car was irrelevant, it decided - and it did not matter why the driver was looking at a touchscreen while driving, only that he did so.

He was using it unnecessarily and was driving whilst distracted. The touchscreen itself did not distract him as it was a passive tool. It's minor semantics. If the touchscreen had been showing a movie and he was watching Frozen, then the touchscreen would have distracted him by drawing his attention to it.

 

[Badger_Boom]

Would some of you like to go back to 1966 cars, I certain would not a it was far to dangerous.

The problem with touch screens is that they make the driver more dangerous, not the car.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

He was using it unnecessarily and was driving whilst distracted. The touchscreen itself did not distract him as it was a passive tool. It's minor semantics. If the touchscreen had been showing a movie and he was watching Frozen, then the touchscreen would have distracted him by drawing his attention to it.

You can try to sugar it however you want, but he was distracted from driving whilst operating the touchscreen.

 

[Badger_Boom]

He was using it unnecessarily and was driving whilst distracted. The touchscreen itself did not distract him as it was a passive tool. It's minor semantics. If the touchscreen had been showing a movie and he was watching Frozen, then the touchscreen would have distracted him by drawing his attention to it.

All well and good, but he was using it like 90% of Tesla drivers will. What’s the point of paying top dollar for touch screen controls and then doing it yourself? There’s also a school of thought that even voice control is too distracting for a lot of drivers.

Edited to add: nothing you have to (or just feel like) physically interact with is ‘passive’.

 

[screenman]

The problem with touch screens is that they make the driver more dangerous, not the car.

I disagree, I have driven for over 3 hours today and only touched the screen once, that was to select the radio channel I wanted before starting off.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

There’s also a school of thought that even voice control is too distracting for a lot of drivers.

There's also a school of thought that even driving is too distracting for a lot of drivers.

 

[screenman]

There's also a school of thought that even driving is too distracting for a lot of drivers.

Just to bring balance we should add cycling to that one, the amount of cyclist I know that look down at the rear sprockets to see what gear they are in, whilst swerving right as they do so.

 

[Landsurfer]

Just to bring balance we should add cycling to that one, the amount of cyclist I know that look down at the rear sprockets to see what gear they are in, whilst swerving right as they do so.

Or fiddling with their Garmin while paying no attention to the road ahead .....

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Just to bring balance we should add cycling to that one, the amount of cyclist I know that look down at the rear sprockets to see what gear they are in, whilst swerving right as they do so.

Or fiddling with their Garmin while paying no attention to the road ahead .....

Although it's difficult to argue with either of you, a cyclist isn't driving a chunk of steel that can easily kill or can kill as easily

 

[screenman]

Although it's difficult to argue with either of you, a cyclist isn't driving a chunk of steel that can easily kill or can kill as easily

Just as well, unfortunately many of them do when not on the bike.

 

[fossyant]

I do like Android Auto in my son's Fabia. You just ask Google to do stuff.

 

[Gunk]

I disagree, I have driven for over 3 hours today and only touched the screen once, that was to select the radio channel I wanted before starting off.

you can also turn them off, which I regularly do.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Give me knobs and buttons any day, still trying to get the hang of electric windows....

 

[cougie uk]

Is there any proof that be was fiddling with the touch screen ?

Seems a bit of an easy excuse to offer.
We've all seen drivers on the phone or driving incredibly poorly.

Whatever is in the car the onus is on the driver to pay attention to what's going on outside. Drivers get away with killing people every day sadly.