Why carmakers are now trying to minimise your screen use while driving

First, there were buttons. Then, there was a small screen and some buttons. Now, there may be a few buttons but a higher-end vehicle is more likely to have nearly 50% of its dashboard made up of a touchscreen.This screen can serve multiple functions. It can map your journey and help you reverse as you park. However, it could also serve as a screen that airs a music video or a film as you drive to your destination. And if you’ve bought a high-end SUV or car, many more controls including air-conditioning, ambient lighting and more lie within the screen. Except, you’re also supposed to keep your eyes on the road to react to a cow or person that might cross your path. At one time, motorists were fined for speaking on their mobile phones while driving, but now, in spite of these screens serving as much bigger distractions that take your eyes off the road, the size of screens and their uses in vehicles has only been on the rise. But now, thanks to a push by the European car safety body and multiple studies over the years documenting just how distracting screens can be while driving, carmakers are finally bringing back more buttons on car dashboards, even the most high-tech ones. How the screen became bigger over the yearsCar dashboards originally had analog dials to indicate various engine functions and buttons to control functions like air conditioning, wipers and music. When the screen did make its debut on car dashboards, its highest degree of function was telling you what song was playing on your speakers or which radio station you were tuned into. mediumhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4zLAMiUK40In fact, if you wanted screens for entertainment they were largely screens like these: And these screens were only for the rear seats. They were obviously considered too distracting to be put next to the driver’s seat. While the size of the screen grew over the years, the functions remained largely restricted to entertainment. Then came the smartphone and real-time navigation via phone, which resulted in the use of dashboard-mounted mobile phone stands. However, all that changed when Tesla put a 12-inch screen in the middle of its Model S dashboard in 2012. The screen was no longer just limited to entertainment and navigation, you could now customise exactly how your car felt and functioned through the dashboard. This change in design has since become a standard of sorts for vehicles and with the rise of electric vehicles – the screen as the default control for most of a vehicle’s functions. In India, a majority of passenger vehicles still have smaller screens with only high-end offerings having screen sizes larger than 10 inches. However, as it turns out it’s not just the size of the screen but its misuse as a tool of distraction that has become an issue the world over. How much does a screen distract?Whether it’s a mobile phone screen that’s playing a YouTube video, a screen that’s showing you a map and playing videos, or a giant screen that controls every function of the car; one thing’s for certain, all of them impair your driving.Once you learn to drive, it’s often easy to forget how hard it is to learn how to drive. One of the most complex activities humans do daily, it requires you to handle sensory, motor and cognitive inputs to make decisions rapidly. An experienced driver knows how much to press down on an accelerator or brake, which button on the dashboard does what and which visual cue to use to come to a screeching halt. A screen on the other hand - often with moving images - distracts from the road and other sensory inputs that might dictate how you drive. A US study in 2016 found that the chances of having an accident while driving almost doubled if you indulged in an activity that took your eyes off the road. Just the use of a mobile phone while driving raised the risk of an accident by 3.6 times. The study noted that mobile phone use was “probably the single factor that has created the greatest increase in US crashes in recent years, working against the general trend of crash and fatality reduction.” The more to do on a screen, the more the distractionOne study done among a group of young drivers found that they struggled the most while using larger dashboard screens to adjust navigation or music. Another found that looking at a bright colourful screen impaired the vision of the driver in terms of spotting black and white objects significantly. The amount of time taken by drivers to respond to a black and white object after looking at a dashboard screen increased to a level comparable to talking on a phone. The study also said the vision of elderly drivers was likely to be more affected by such screens.“Our results suggest that a driver traveling 65 miles/h attending to an automobile display for 0.24 s would experience diminished driving visibility for 22.88 feet, posing a formidable threat to safety,” the study noted. Then there’s the risk of trying to use the screen but finding that it isn’t responding or that you can’t find the control you’re seeking. A TRL study in 2020 found that a driver using any kind of screen-based driving system - whether voice-activated or touch-activated - reacted much slower. “Results from this study generally indicate that interacting with both systems (Android Auto and Apple CarPlay) using the touch feature had a more negative impact on driver performance compared with not interacting with a device at all,” the study noted. In fact, the study said that a driver actively using a screen-based system reacted as slowly as a driver who had consumed the legal limit of alcohol or had consumed cannabis. Why do buttons work better?But in spite of the mounting evidence against screens on dashboards, manufacturers have persisted with the technology because it allowed them to cut costs. Fewer buttons meant a reduction in manufacturing complexity and parts used, resulting in faster production as well. Wired spoke with design experts who pointed out that having buttons that one can feel makes it easier to keep one’s eyes on the road. They also point out that automakers should ignore customers who want purely screen-based controls in the interests of safety.In 2024, the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) announced that from 2026 onwards, its highest five-star safety rating will only be given to vehicles that retain physical buttons for five key vehicle functions. The five functions are: direction indicators, hazard lights, windscreen wipers, horn and SOS functions.While the testing by the body is voluntary, most carmakers have already begun switching back to physical controls for some of the automobile’s functions.An FT report pointed out how Chinese carmakers - who have put some of the biggest dashboard screens in their offerings - are toning down the size of the screens. They’re also offering physical buttons in new models and in some cases, even attachable physical buttons.In India, a majority of cars have smaller screens but the level of misuse is likely to be as high or worse. India’s accident data for 2022 says that over 7,558 cases of road accidents occurred due to the use of mobile phones and caused the death of 3,395 people and injured over 6,200. However, there’s a lack of clarity on what the nature of mobile use was and who was injured or killed in the accident. Then there’s also the lack of clarity on how much screen usage contributed to accidents documented under other categories.For now, there are no widespread legal or tech restrictions on the use of dashboard or mobile screens while a vehicle is in motion. Some vehicle makers have begun restricting in-built screen usage while the vehicle is moving. Smaller screens may reduce the scale of distraction, but more needs to be done.