14 DAY TRIAL // Although they’ve never even touched the product, so-called safety experts are already slamming Apple’s CarPlay infotainment system, which the Cupertino company markets as “the smarter, safer and more fun way to use iPhone in the car” (emphasis ours).
CarPlay was unveiled to the public on Monday, March 3, with partners Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo announcing their full support for the infotainment system that “gives iPhone users an incredibly intuitive way to make calls, use Maps, listen to music and access messages with just a word or a touch.”
Despite CarPlay’s being welcomed with open arms by the world’s leading auto makers and despite having yet to use the CarPlay system even once, so-called safety experts are concerned. Very concerned.
“We're very, very concerned about it,” said David Teater, senior director at the nonprofit National Safety Council, referring to CarPlay.
“The auto industry and the consumer electronics industry are really in an arms race to see how we can enable drivers to do stuff other than driving.”
There is a lot of evidence that regular phone use and hands-free use are both just as distracting behind the wheel. CNN reports that this “‘cognitive distraction’ [...] occurs when drivers have their eyes on the road but their minds focused elsewhere.”
The publication further points to government statistics that indicate that cell-phone use remains a leading contributor to “distracted driving” accidents, having killed 3,328 people and injured 421,000 in 2012.
Bruce Hamilton, manager of research and communications at the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, is equally concerned.
He says that “The idea that people want to be on their phones, and therefore let's give them a way to do that -- that's not putting safety first, that's putting convenience and the desire to be in touch first.”
Editor’s note Although I do agree we’d be better off just focusing on the driving, there’s one aspect that these “experts” seem to be overlooking. The more our gadgets evolve, the more addicted we become to them. Basically, you just can’t stop people from fiddling with their smartphone, even behind the wheel. It’s a fact of life.
So if people already choose to ignore these basic safety rules, isn’t it better to at least give them a solution that lets them do it all from the car’s dashboard? It’s not ideal driving, I concur, but this way they still have one eye on the road.