Are car mobile entertainment centre car dashboards making driving distracting?

We all know that it is illegal to use a handheld mobile phone while driving a car, and rightly so, as it's extremely distracting.

It has even been proven that holding a phone conversation (using Bluetooth and handsfree) is distracting in itself with drivers surveyed unable to recall the last few kilometres of their journey in which they were in conversation on thephone. And that is a perfectly legal scenario!

We have seen the advertisement campaigns encouraging us to “switch off the mobile” while driving. We have seen the advertisements encouraging drivers not to be distracted by the young children in the rear of the car. In short, the message is clear. For safer driving and fewer road traffic-related deaths focus on the task in hand, that of driving the car.

Why then are manufacturers allowed to produce cars which have huge touchscreens with endless sub menus which are by their very design extremely distracting? I road test some sixty cars a year so I get a very clear picture of what is happening with ICE (In Car Entertainment).

Manufacturers are clambering to outdo each other with ever more “connected” cars. I am not against this technology but in the pursuit of being seen to give motorists more in their cars manufacturers are producing cars with ever larger (up to 12-inch wide) touchscreens with endless and often difficult to find sub-menus and no tactile buttons.

I will give you an example. Just a few years ago if I wanted to turn on seat heating, or change the temperature in the car a simple button did the trick. I did not even have to look at the button as I pushed it because when it's your car you know exactly where it is in the centre console. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Pictured is a dash from a BYD Dolphin. 

Now in many cars I road test just to change the cabin temperature requires something like this.Look at the touch screen (eyes are OFF the road ahead) select Menu, Select Climate, Select Temperature, Scroll up or down to required temperature, reselect Home, reselect Navigation (because I’m lost without a huge 12” map of where I live!) Is this safe or is this distracted driving?

Think how long it took you to read this paragraph. It takes longer to enact the scene I gave in reality and all the while you could be travelling at up to 120 km/h with your eyes OFF the road! Indeed many touch screens require all your attention to “touch” it in the correct place to get the result you want.

In the USA recent surveys of fatal road traffic accidents have concluded that “Distracted Driving” created by the cars own ICE system is leading to more road traffic accidents. Some manufacturers such as Mercedes and BMW to name but two, do still give buttons for some of the main functions such as Climate, etc and of course, voice activation is helpful though not perfect.

Try adjusting the temperature in some cars using voice activation and you find the soothing female voiceswitching your radio channel. Rather frustrating! Do we need a 12’ map of where we are driving? No! In fact, for satellite navigation voice instruction works just fine. Maybe with just a pop-up indication of the next motorway off-ramp etc.

A huge distracting screen is unnecessary. In my opinion, it's now gone too far. Manufacturers give us back a tactile button to push for the main in-car controls. It's less distracting and it works perfectly and often looks better too!