Tag Archives: threat detection

Feds Want End To Texting While Driving

Today, federal Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood proposed voluntary steps to establish new safety criteria for hands-free calling, navigation and entertainment systems in cars.

“Distracted driving is a dangerous and deadly habit on America’s roadways — that’s why I’ve made it a priority to encourage people to stay focused behind the wheel,” LaHood said.

Distracted driving deaths totaled 3,092 in 2010, the latest available figures show. But LaHood’s agency believes the total could be higher due to the unwillingness of drivers to always admit behavior, lack of witnesses to a crash in some cases, or the death of the driver.

Most U.S. motorists surveyed last year acknowledged few situations in which they would not use a cellphone or text while behind the wheel. However, they supported measures to curb both practices, the Transportation Department said.

La Hood’s proposal recommends disabling in-vehicle electronic devices that the driver could use when a car is moving. This would cover text messaging, Internet browsing, and access to social media.  The National Transportation Safety Board also recommended in December that certain hands-free and communication devices be banned in cars.

Watch Those Snowplows

Drive Safely Around Snowplows

We’ve had our first snowstorm of 2012, but winter is far from over.  Each year, many drivers and passengers are injured in collisions with snowplows.  To reduce your risks, follow these basic tips:

  • Use caution when approaching, following or passing a snowplow.  They sometimes need to take evasive action to avoid stranded cars or roadside obstacles.
  • When traveling behind a snowplow, allow a longer follow distance.  Snowplows travel below the posted speed limit and may stop suddenly.
  • Don’t brake suddenly in front of a snowplow.  Like other trucks, they have a long stopping distance, and road conditions warranting a plow truck only make that worse.
  • Don’t crowd a snowplow.  Besides erratic manuevers and sudden stops, plows are also usually spreading anti-ice materials out the back.  Keep your car a safe distance away – 200 feet should be plenty.
  • Don’t travel next to a snowplow.  Remember, they may need to shift left suddenly to avoid roadside obstacles.
  • Check carefully before passing a snowplow.  Figure out to which side it’s discharging the snow to avoid getting coated in debris and losing visibility.  Remember, plows are generally larger than your car, and you may not be able to see all parts of the truck clearly.

Cars That Drive Themselves

The February 2012 issue of Wired Magazine features a cover story about cars that drive themselves.  No longer a technology of the future, these cars are actually here already, navigating themselves through busy rush hour freeway traffic at 70 miles per hour.  And they’re doing it more safely than the human beings around them.

Google's Self-Driving Car

These cars utilize everything from radar to laser arrays to identify and track targets around them, and they can make 20 threat assessments every second.  Recently, I had a high school class take a hazard perception challenge in which I showed them a slide for four seconds and then asked them three questions about what they saw.  Whines and grumbles flared up with the first question, as students complained that that wasn’t enough time.  I then showed them several video clips in which unrecognized threats turned into crashes in less than two seconds – the idea being to reinforce how every second counts when driving for survival.

But, 20 threat assessments each second?  If there’s a human mind capable of matching that, I’ve never been in its company.

I’m one of those people who loves to drive.  I prefer a standard transmission to an automatic and would rather be on a curvy mountain road alone than on a crowded freeway.  But I’m keenly aware most people don’t share my passion for it.  Most people use their car simply to get them from one place to another as quickly as possible.  For them, automatic transmissions, power steering, ABS, electronic stability control and even automated parallel parking are welcome conveniences, elements of the driving task they are happy to hand over to computer control.

Nevada has become the first state to pass laws concerning self-driving cars – they’re exempt from anti-texting laws, for one.  As the Wired author puts it, “Maybe the problem is not that texting and Facebook are distracting us from driving. Maybe the problem is that driving distracts us from our digital lives.”

Read the full WIRED article online here.

What would you prefer?

Would you rather sign off from your digital world for an hour at a time and tackle the physical and cognitive tasks required to drive safely, or would you prefer to select your destination and let the car handle getting you there while you multitask through your commute?

 

 

New CHOP Study Pinpoints Causes of Teen Crashes

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and State Farm Insurance Companies recently published new research that pinpoints the most common errors teen drivers make that lead to a serious crash, and they aren’t the errors you think.

Researchers analyzed a nationally-representative federal database of more than 800 crashes involving teen drivers and identified a few common “critical errors” that are often one of the last in a chain of events leading up to a crash.  Seventy-five percent of these crashes were due to a critical teen driver error.  The two biggest reasons:

  • 42% of teen crashes were caused by poorly-developed safety threat awareness or risk assessment skills
  • 20% of teen crashes were caused by distractions

The researchers noted that environmental conditions, such as poor weather, vehicle malfunction, aggressive driving, or physical impairments such as drowsy driving were not primary factors in most crashes.

This study helps dispel the myth that most teen crashes are due to aggressive driving or thrill-seeking,” said Allison Curry, PhD, lead author and a researcher at CHOP’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP). “Promoting safe driving skills is as important as preventing problem behaviors.”

Click here to read the full press release from CHOP and State Farm.