Faculty of Human Kinetics professor Dr. Francesco Biondi studies distracted driving (DAVE GAUTHIER/University of Windsor)
By Kate Hargreaves
Twenty years ago, the cockpit of the average car was a lot less complicated.
Knobs and buttons turned on the heat and air conditioning, adjusted vents or changed the radio station.
Today, touch screens are the norm, and manufacturers compete to add the latest in technological advancements.
The high-profile announcement of artificial intelligence (AI) applications such as ChatGPT and Gemini being added to vehicle infotainment systems is just the latest in this ongoing trend toward driver tech.
While manufacturers may promise that this addition will allow drivers to keep more of their attention on the road while AI handles navigation, phone calls and other tasks, Dr. Francesco Biondi, a professor in the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Human Kinetics, says the effect is likely to be the opposite.
“We’re sold the sort of reality where we can just drive along and multitask with these very intelligent assistants,” says Biondi, “but this is just a dream. The reality is very different.”
Biondi, who studies distracted driving, explains that in the last couple of decades, high-resolution touchscreens have become bigger and more numerous in vehicles, with drivers sometimes having access to two or three screens vying for their attention.
“With more technology being jammed into our cars, distracted driving is getting worse because there’s more sources of distraction,” says Biondi.
He notes that while manufacturers tout new AI systems as being intelligent, voice-based and intuitive, requiring less driver distraction, the actual functionality — or lack thereof — of these products can lead to even greater distraction.
AI-based car tech may struggle to connect to navigation applications, leading drivers to then have to spend more time and mental energy telling the AI where they are and where they are trying to go.
Even a task as simple as sending a text message through voice can become jumbled via vehicle-based AI systems.
“The problem is that we are sold that the system will work great, and actually they don’t work,” Biondi says. “If anything, they may even produce more distraction.”
One of the issues Biondi identifies with the increasingly complicated infotainment systems is a lack of standards in the auto industry.
“We have standards for seatbelts, for airbags for seating in the car, but there’s no standards or regulations whatsoever on infotainment systems,” he says.
“The automakers don’t want to be regulated. They believe having a bigger screen or designing the screen is their own concern, and even the regulators don’t want to overstep in that domain, but in my opinion, there’s just too much technology in the car.”
The consequences of this distraction can be dire for drivers and vulnerable road users, and driver distraction is alarmingly common.
In a past study with Windsor Police Service, Biondi’s research found that about 20 per cent of drivers were distracted in some way.
As to how this distraction can be prevented, Biondi says it is a complicated task that combines education, policing and regulation as well as technology.
“If you’re a kid and see your parents using their phones when driving, you think it’s okay to be distracted while driving,” he says, noting that public education as well as policing and traffic campaigns can help bring attention to the seriousness of this issue.
Prevention efforts may also incorporate other types of technology.
“On the more reactive side, there’s a lot of systems that can help avoid the collision or mitigate the risks or outcomes of that collision,” says Biondi.
“There’s also systems intended to monitor the level of distraction of the driver, cameras pointed at the driver’s face in the cockpit, but again this technology is far from being perfect or widespread in vehicles.”
Biondi’s current research seeks to examine some of these automated systems, specifically those like Tesla’s Autopilot, that claim to automate driving tasks.
“We go to dealerships and they say, ‘the car is going to drive by itself,’ so it’s not surprising that when people drive the car, they tend to kick back and think the car is going to do the driving,” he says.
“A lot of the research we are doing now is looking at the relation between this automated driving technology and the distraction potential associated with these systems and also developing systems that are capable of detecting the distraction in real time by just using dash cameras.”
As for Biondi himself, he drives an older car with dials and knobs.
“It’s great because you don’t have to deal with a laggy touch screen or unresponsive voice control,” he says.
“There’s been a light trend in the industry where drivers are just getting fed up with all these bells and whistles.”