Today's drivers are overwhelmed by both new and old cars
12/11/2016
The insurance company Allianz recently surprised us with a published study according to which "excessive demands" in modern cars cause more accidents than drunk driving. Despite increasing automation (or precisely because of it), there is more and more to do in today's cars, although many of these activities do not really count as driving.
The Allianz study comments:
"According to the new representative survey by Allianz, around one in two drivers commits cell phone violations (46 percent); around three quarters of respondents are regularly distracted by the use of built-in technology in the vehicle (74 percent).
39 percent use the navigation system while driving. 58 percent search for or operate the radio function via the on-board menu. 15 percent of all drivers type, and just under one in four (24 percent) read text messages on their smartphone. This is significantly higher among respondents up to the age of 24. For example, 23 percent type and 27 percent read while driving. 29 percent confirm that they check who has contacted them on their cell phone. Strikingly, 52% are distracted by passengers talking on their phones while driving."
The result is not surprising, says Mathias Scheuber, Claims Director at Allianz Versicherungs-AG: "The more diverse the technology and the more complex its operation, the greater the distraction from road traffic."
Young drivers are therefore particularly at risk, presumably because they are already growing up with modern cars that do many things themselves. Whereas in the past you had to switch on the windshield wipers or the lights yourself, in today's cars this is done by the technology. Shifting gears is automatic anyway, as is braking and accelerating more and more frequently (cruise control).
But what happens when these people get behind the wheel of older cars? They forget to switch on the lights, they can't find important controls, they overestimate the car's capabilities. Here, too, they are out of their depth and would actually need an introduction first, which they did not receive at driving school.
However, many mistakes happen even in modern cars, namely when the automatic system fails. Recently, when driving through the fog during the day, many drivers were not aware that they were driving with daytime running lights because the automatic system did not switch to low beam (and therefore also switched on the rear lights) and the cars therefore remained almost invisible. Overload?
