Enough distractions are enough
On blind spots, parking without looking, and the crime of distracting drivers who should be paying more attention than ever
Apparently not content with the neverending flood of spam texts and voice messages promising deals on "your car's extended warranty", Jeep has decided to permit in-dashboard advertising for an extended warranty plan on new vehicles. The oversized display screen has been a feature of some vehicles for more than a dozen years, and a majority of all new cars for at least ten, but the explicit conversion of the displays into advertising panels is reckless.
■ Giant touchscreens may be adaptable for the programmers working behind the scenes of automaking, but they are a terrible development for the drivers of any vehicles that are not fully self-driving. They are distracting (basically out of necessity) and inevitably cause problems particularly at night, when drivers' eyes need to be able to detect obstacles in low light. But even in the best of circumstances, touchscreens demand lots of attention that should be devoted to the act of driving instead.
■ Analog inputs, like buttons, dials, and switches, are not always well-designed. But, at their best, they are plainly easier to make intuitive and non-disruptive to the conduct of the driver. It's known that drivers perceive their vehicles as extensions of themselves -- it's why a rental car takes some getting used to, and why someone driving their own car can often tell precisely how far away they're parked from a curb. Likewise, a good cabin design becomes an extension of the driver's space, making it intuitive where to reach to raise the temperature or turn down the radio. Touchscreens and their menu trees are impossible to navigate so unconsciously.
■ And an analog display is much harder to abuse by filling it with uninvited advertising for extended warranties -- or anything else. Just because technology makes some behaviors possible doesn't authorize making parasitic choices about how to treat vehicle "consumers". It's dangerous enough to let us all on the road with vehicles that can weigh 7,000 or 8,000 pounds and have deadly blind spots caused by factors like wildly excessive hood heights. Automakers need to show the social sense and public-interestedness to know when it's time to pass on one more opportunity to advertise to chronically distracted drivers.