Ready to Take Over? Driver Distraction in the Age of Automation

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Ready to Take Over? Driver Distraction in the Age of Automation

March 30, 2022

Wednesday 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. ET

This Wednesdays with Woodward® program is proudly presented as part of the Travelers Institute’s Every Second Matters® initiative, which empowers drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians to speak up, set positive examples and play an active role in changing roadway behaviors to help prevent injuries and save lives.

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Distracted driving is a dangerous - full stop. Taking your eyes or mind off the road, or your hands off the wheel while driving, can significantly increase your crash risk. But what happens to driver attention when automated vehicles come into play? Will drivers adequately be able to focus on supervising the technology? Dr. Ian Reagan and Dr. Alexandra Mueller joined us from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a leading authority on crash risk, to discuss IIHS’ new framework for rating partially automated vehicles and how well they help drivers stay focused on the road.

This program, kicking off Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April 2022, was held as part of the Travelers Institute Every Second Matters® distracted driving education initiative.

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Summary

This installment of Wednesdays with Woodward® webinar – hosted by guest moderator Jessica Kearney, Assistant Vice Present of the Travelers Institute – opened with remarks from  Emily Stein, President of the Safe Roads Alliance, an organization she founded after her father was killed by a distracted driver. “I felt the strong need to talk about what happened in hopes of educating drivers about the power they hold when they get behind the wheel, the power to take away a life in an instant,” she said. Urging manufacturers to champion safety over convenience when designing in-vehicle technology, she added, “No one should be able to order Starbucks from the driver seat. If we do this correctly, some partially automated features can save lives instead of causing more distractions.”

Here are the top takeaways from Ready to Take Over? Driver Distraction in the Age of Automation:

Click each key point to jump directly within the webinar to watch and hear more.

Traffic fatalities increased during the pandemic. According to early projections from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more people were killed in motor vehicle collisions in the first nine months of 2021 than any year since 2006.1Stein noted that the pandemic has impacted people’s driving – “it seems that people are driving faster and more aggressively.” She believes fatigue from the pandemic is to blame, adding, “Following all the precautions has exhausted us,” she said. “The car was like this protective bubble where some people felt they didn’t need to follow the rules.”

The nature of distracted driving is changing. Over the last decade, the number of drivers talking on their phones has decreased, but the number of drivers “manipulating” their phones (texting, emailing, scrolling through social media) has more than doubled, according to Reagan. The associated risk is much higher than just talking on the phone. As in-vehicle screens and automated features demand more of drivers’ attention, visual-manual distractions pose the greatest threat. “Where the driver is looking tends to be related to where the driver’s paying attention, and the longer the driver looks away from the road, the higher their likelihood of getting into a crash,” noted Mueller. Consistent with IIHS research, the 2022 Travelers Risk Index on distracted driving, released March 30, found that more than half of people surveyed admitted to reading text messages or emails while driving.

No, your car can’t drive itself. “There are no vehicles available today that are fully equipped with self-driving technology, but some are designed in ways that can give the impression that they can drive themselves,” said Mueller. “These technologies are not meant to replace the driver whatsoever, and they can’t. Sometimes they will fail. Sometimes they will do things that the driver does not expect. The driver has to be engaged in order to prevent a dangerous situation,” she emphasized.

Automated driving assistance may increase driver distraction. A joint study between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and IIHS found that once drivers build up comfort and trust in their vehicle’s automated driving features, they become more disengaged. “The levels of disengagement went through the roof. It was night and day,” Reagan said. “We found much more distraction with the automation,” he added, explaining how having both hands off the wheel allowed drivers to fidget more with electronics as they developed trust in the driver assistance features in their vehicles.

IIHS’ newly established rating system aims to ensure drivers use the technology appropriately and remain attentive while driving. “The program sets minimum expectations for how these technologies should be designed so drivers are kept engaged when using them,” said Mueller. IIHS recommendations for in-vehicle automated driving systems include the ability to:

  1. Monitor for signs of driver disengagement.
  2. Clearly and rapidly communicate to the driver when disengagement is detected to return their attention to driving.
  3. Deter repetitive, prolonged disengagement through emergency escalation countermeasures.
  4. Require drivers to initiate or confirm automated lane changes.
  5. Verify the driver is looking at the road before automatically resuming from stop.
  6. Promote cooperation between the driver and vehicle through shared steering control.
  7. Require use of crash avoidance features and seat belts when using the automation.

When it comes to safety, crash avoidance technology rules the road. “It’s the most effective countermeasure that we have for distracted driving at the moment,” said Reagan. While the jury is still out on automated driver assistance technology, collision warning with auto-braking translates to a 50% lower rear crash rate.

No vehicle passed all the IIHS safety tests for partially automated cars. “No one is getting a gold star in every category, but some automakers are doing some things really well,” Mueller told us. “Everything that we are asking for is possible. This is the whole purpose of why we developed a ratings program to help push for designs that encourage proper system use.

1https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/traffic-fatalities-estimates-jan-sept-2021

Presented by the Travelers Institute, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Safe Roads Alliance, the MetroHartford Alliance, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, the Master's in Financial Technology (FinTech) Program at the University of Connecticut School of Business, and the Risk and Uncertainty Management Center at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business.

Welcoming remarks

Emily Stein
Emily Stein
President, Safe Roads Alliance

Speakers

Alexandra Mueller
Alexandra Mueller
PhD, Research Scientist, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Ian Reagan
Ian Reagan
PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Host/Moderator

Joan Woodward headshot
Joan Woodward
President, Travelers Institute; Executive Vice President, Public Policy, Travelers

Jessica Kearney headshot
Jessica Kearney
Assistant Vice President, Travelers Institute, Travelers

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