Distracted Driving: Let's Slay the Monster We Created

Almost every day we see it: Someone in one of the cars around you moving down the road at high speed with their attention focused on their smartphone instead of the traffic around them. It's a global phenomenon, and there's no sign of it decreasing in frequency despite all the laws against it. According to distraction.gov, the official US government website for distracted driving, 3,179 people were killed and 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in the USA during 2014. The World Health Organization predicts that by 2030, road traffic injuries will be the fifth leading cause of death globally, surpassing AIDS, diabetes, violence, and all forms of cancer. Yet with all that carnage, the site goes on to say: "The best way to end distracted driving is to educate all Americans about the danger it poses."

As a technologist, this is appalling to me. This problem exists because of the smartphone and mobile network technology we have created, and has grown because of the improvements we have made to that technology specifically so that all of us can be connected at all times, everywhere. Yet our best solution is to try to convince people that they shouldn't do the very thing that the technology was designed to enable!

I can't accept that, and I think we need to devise and implement technological solutions for this technological problem. Certainly people can and will continue to eat, drink, groom themselves, and engage in other distracting activities while driving, but I think we all agree that very few of these have the same distractive capacity as messages and other notifications that are actively pushed to your device at random times during the day causing it to flash, shake, and make all kinds of noises to get your attention.

The solution seems obvious: Simply stop the driver's phone from creating or allowing distractions while the vehicle is moving. Unfortunately, a logical examination of that approach leads to another set of problems that are not easily addressed:

• How do you know that the user is driving and not just a passenger in a car, bus, or train?
• What applications are allowed? Should the driver be able to have a voice conversation over Bluetooth? Should they be able to have a voice interaction with Siri, Alexa, or Cortana? What about Google Maps? Pandora radio? How do you allow some interactions and prevent others?
• How do you disable the driver's phone yet allow the passengers' phones to continue normal operation? People have multiple cars, multiple devices, and people also rent and share cars, so this is not straightforward.
• How do you deal with people who actively try to bypass or override the control mechanisms?

This used to be a problem related solely to text messaging, and perhaps could have been addressed through controlling SMS delivery in the mobile operator networks, but now it's about mobile applications over the Internet. Since you cannot disable Internet service without making the device completely useless, the solution must lie with the device manufacturers and the automobile manufacturers. I don't know what the answer is, but I believe it will involve a few specific technological components. 

First, every mobile device must be able to transition into a Driver Mode that limits its capabilities. For example, screen input may be disabled and only voice interaction permitted. Applications will have to be qualified to operate in this mode, and if not they will be disabled by the device operating system.

Second, every automobile must be able to provide information to the device that would allow it to engage and disengage Driver Mode at appropriate times, such as when the car is put into or taken out of a drive gear, or when the car is in motion or stopped.

The automobile could also assist or take over engagement with the driver in more intelligent ways, perhaps via technologies such as Apple's CarPlay or Google's Android Auto. It's certainly better to present visual information on the car's dashboard or infotainment display than require the driver to look at their phone's screen, and it's also better to present audio information over the car's speakers than those on the phone. In today's world where every smartphone can use Bluetooth and screen sharing, this should not be a big leap.

Finally, there will have to be some solution for dealing with multiple devices in the car. One approach may be to have each device's location precisely analyzed to determine which one is nearest the driver's position. Another may be for the car to detect all devices and force one to be placed into Driver Mode with the notion that passengers would object to having their phone disabled by the driver.

There are a few technical solutions available now, such as CellControl, but these are mainly for teen drivers and require parents to install and configure hardware in the car and applications on their child's phone. Most adults would never voluntarily install this kind of control, and could choose to opt out of it whenever they wanted. 

I think this problem is serious enough that phone and car manufacturers should get together and agree to a solution that works, and ensure that the technology is standardized, documented, and freely licensed. A subset of drivers will try to circumvent the solution, but the majority of drivers will probably appreciate the improved interaction and integration between their phones and cars and never look back.

If you have any thoughts on this important problem, please share them!