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238 points Brajeshwar | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.545s | source
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crazygringo ◴[] 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 ◴[] 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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unglaublich ◴[] No.45315384[source]
Cars don't kill their drivers typically, they kill people outside of the vehicle.
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1. dmoy ◴[] No.45317390[source]
I guess that depends on the country? In the US, motorist fatalities from crashes outnumber pedestrian/bicycle/etc fatalities like 4:1, I think? I guess that includes both motorist killing self or occupants and also motorist killing other motorists.
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2. bradfa ◴[] No.45318737[source]
In the US there are probably 1000x miles traveled in cars vs on bicycles or as pedestrians everywhere except probably the top 10 metro areas. That the casualty rates are only 4:1 shows the danger that cars pose to non-car road users.
3. arp242 ◴[] No.45319048[source]
The metric you would need for this is "fatalities and crashes caused because someone was struggling to deal with their bloody touchscreen", which can be both motorists and non-motorists. I don't think anyone is tracking that.