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Are touchscreens in cars dangerous?

(www.economist.com)
238 points Brajeshwar | 5 comments | 20 Sep 25 15:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.464s | source
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crazygringo ◴[20 Sep 25 16:27 UTC] No.45314757[source]▶
> An analysis published in 2020 by the Transport Research Laboratory, a British organisation, found that touchscreens impaired a driver’s reaction time more than driving over the legal alcohol limit.

The question isn't whether they're dangerous, anymore.

The question is, when is safety legislation going to be passed that prevents them from being used for any routine adjustments while driving. I.e. windshield wipers, AC, change volume, skip to next track, etc.

Like it's fine if you still use them to input a GPS destination, change long-term car settings, connect a Bluetooth device, etc.

But we need to separate out the actions routinely used during driving and legislate physical controls. Why is there not legislation for this already?

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lazystar ◴[20 Sep 25 16:55 UTC] No.45315029[source]▶
> Why is there not legislation for this already?

Cars that dont kill their drivers are more likely to have repeat customers; i.e. other factors besides legislation will force car manufacterers to shift their designs back to this approach. My 2024 CRV has exactly what you describe.

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1. bryanrasmussen ◴[20 Sep 25 18:02 UTC] No.45315689[source]▶
People buy a new car generally every 5-7 years.

furthermore there does not seem to be any great brand loyalty in the market

https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/automotive-consumers-more-di...

maybe because of being afraid of dying but probably not, but given how often people buy new cars (not that often) and the lack of loyalty, I think it would not make any sense from a business perspective to give a damn if the customers die (disregarding moral perspective which I'm sure is a primary concern for automotive manufacturers)

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2. junga ◴[20 Sep 25 20:22 UTC] No.45317074[source]▶
Do you have a source for that five to seven years period? I skimmed your link but it does not seem to prove your point.
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3. bluGill ◴[20 Sep 25 20:23 UTC] No.45317087[source]▶
The average car is 12 years old. You don't junk that old car you move it on to someone else
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4. Terr_ ◴[20 Sep 25 21:32 UTC] No.45317742[source]▶
> The average car is 12 years old.

That's not the same statistic though: If the only car in the world was manufactured 20 years ago and had 4 owners, then the average ownership-duration would be 5 years, a much smaller number.

____

Survey says [0] people tend to cycle vehicles in 8 years.

[0] https://www.thezebra.com/resources/driving/average-length-of...

5. bryanrasmussen ◴[21 Sep 25 10:28 UTC] No.45321528[source]▶
I don't really have a single source for the 5 - 7 years, I've read it before and kept it in my mind, the article I linked was for the shrinking brand loyalty as I thought that might need more confirmation, that said

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/heres-how-often-americans-re...

which implies less than 5 years for 2/3s of Americans, although not sure what the average is.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that most people will own 10 cars in their lifetime but querying How many cars does the average person own in their lifetime gives me 8.

Assuming car buying age is from 18 to 72, that gives 54 years of car buying, and 8 gives us 6.75 years per car if the average owns 8 cars. 5.4 years if the average owns 10 cars.