Hacker News Reader

Comment by winternett | Hacker News Reader

Auto accidents are increasing because of increasing driving-related app distractions.

Android auto and many other driving-related apps frequently call for attention and they also introduce frustrations and distractions that should not occur. There is also no really way to properly account for how much these apps distract people because of the ideal that they serve vital functions.

Just to enable Android auto and Apple Car play a user has to take their eyes off the road and it's freaking dangerous. Make sure roads are totally clear before crossing, or take the long way around, it's your only hope as distracting ads, engagement driven development, and consumerism take hold of app making.

View on HN

Wouldn't those factors also apply in places other than the US, where the crash rate didn't follow the same pattern?

Absolutely. It's a world-wide epidemic. Even software driven vehicles introduce several new distractions into the process of driving.

The accident rate may change in other areas due to lesser driving habits, or better road markings, but the issues of distracted driving are beginning to show and it can't simply be fixed by speed cameras and tickets, it's something that needs to be addressed with mobile phone makers, car makers, and software companies.

Sure, I agree it's a problem, but if it doesn't match the pattern discussed in TFA, it isn't this problem.

Texting and driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving yet the legal penalties are not close. I see people texting while driving all of the time.

I'd be careful with that equivalence, texting while driving is presumably an intermittent and short lived interruption, when you drive drunk you're impaired for the whole trip.

Entire companies like Uber and DoorDash are built upon drivers being distracted by mobile devices while driving. As dysfunction and advertising proliferates apps more and combined with autonomous and software-driven vehicles, we're all going to be in for a wild ride. (unintentional pun)

Of all the in-car distractions I don’t think these are the problem. I’d argue using either of those is much safer because they don’t allow you to do most of the more distracting things.

Android Auto and Apple Carplay start automatically. Those aren't apps you enable while actually driving.

Not in every car. Each user's experience is different. There are times you need to disable the app, and when you first connect a device or new app to it, it presents distracting prompts that many drivers will not stop properly to address.

The other apps like a music player (etc..) can also easily provide a lot of distracting cues while working in conjunction with Android Auto and Apple Carplay. For example, I use BlackPlayer for music now (Because Google Play Music was retired suddenly) and it frequently malfunctions, does not play, and my volume control is often at the wrong level, and random play never works correctly... Those seemingly little issues are not too hard to address while walking, but while riding a bicycle or driving, they can cause great harm.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com