In 2015, 10 percent of the 35,092 traffic fatalities involved one or more distracted drivers, and these distraction-affected crashes resulted in 3,477 fatalities, an 8.8 percent increase from the 3,197 fatalities in 2014. Of the 5.6 million non-fatal, police-reported crashes in 2014 (the most recent year for which detailed distraction-affected crash data is available), 16 percent were distraction-affected crashes, and resulted in 424,000 people injured. The crash data indicate that visual-manual interaction (an action that requires a user to look away from the roadway and manipulate a button or interface) with portable devices, particularly cell phones, is often the main distraction for drivers involved in crashes. In 2014, there were 385 fatal crashes that involved the use3 of a cell phone, resulting in 404 fatalities. These crashes represent 13 percent of the distraction-affected fatal crashes or 1.3 percent of all fatal crashes.4 The data also indicate that there were a number of fatal crashes that involved the use of a device or object brought into the vehicle (some of which may also have been crashes that involved the use of a cell phone). This catch-all category includes crashes that involved the use of portable devices, such as navigation devices, in addition to other types of objects (e.g., cigarette lighters). Of the 967,000 distraction-affected crashes in 2014, 7 percent (or 1.1 percent of all crashes) involved the use of cell phones and resulted in 33,000 people injured. Driver distraction is a specific type of inattention that occurs when drivers divert their attention away from the driving task to focus on another activity. This distraction can come from electronic devices, such as texting or emailing on cell phones or smartphones, and more traditional activities such as interacting with passengers, eating, or events external to the vehicle. Driver distraction can affect drivers in different ways, and can be broadly categorized into the following types: • Visual distraction: Tasks that require the driver to look away from the roadway to visually obtain information; • Manual distraction: Tasks that require the driver to take one or both hands off the steering wheel to manipulate a control, device, or other non-driving-related item; • Cognitive distraction: Tasks that require the driver to avert their mental attention away from the driving task. Tasks can involve one, two, or all three of these distraction types. NHTSA is aware of the effect that these types of distraction can have on driving safety, particularly visual-manual distraction. At any given time, an estimated 542,073drivers are using hand-held cell phones while driving. Moreover, when sending or receiving a text message with a hand-held phone, the total time that a driver’s eyes are focused off the road is 23 seconds on average.7 This means while traveling at 55 mph, a driver’s eyes are off the road for more than a third of a mile for every text message sent or received. As an agency committed to reducing deaths, injuries, and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle crashes, NHTSA has initiated, and continues to work toward eliminating crashes attributable to driver distraction. Most prominently, NHTSA and the United States Department of Transportation (US DOT) have encouraged efforts by states and other local authorities to pass laws prohibiting hand-held use of portable devices while driving. NHTSA, in conjunction with industry, local governments, and various public interest groups, has also taken numerous steps to educate the public about the dangers of distracted driving. However, until distracted driving is eliminated, the agency must work in the real-world where many drivers continue to use their portable devices and other in-vehicle systems in unsafe ways while driving. Thus, NHTSA has also worked on how to mitigate the distraction that may be caused by these new technologies. In April 2010, NHTSA called for the development of voluntary guidelines addressing driver distraction caused by in-vehicle systems and portable devices. This sentiment was reinforced by the US DOT’s and NHTSA’s June 2012 “Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving.” The blueprint is a comprehensive approach to the distraction problem. The three steps outlined in the blueprint include: enacting and enforcing tough state laws on distracted driving, addressing technology, and better educating young drivers. All three components are necessary to address the distraction issue. The Distraction Guidelines focus on step two by addressing technology. The development of non-binding, voluntary guidelines for in-vehicle and portable devices is being implemented in three phases. The Phase 1 Driver Distraction Guidelines (Phase 1 Guidelines), released in 2013, cover visual-manual interfaces of electronic devices installed in vehicles as original equipment (OE). The Phase 2 Driver Distraction Guidelines (Phase 2 Guidelines), which are the subject of this notice, would apply to visual-manual interfaces of portable and aftermarket devices. While NHTSA is proposing the Phase 2 Guidelines, it is important to note that the agency continues to support state efforts to prohibit hand-held use of portable devices while driving. In proposing the Phase 2 Guidelines, NHTSA stresses that it does not encourage the hand-held use of portable devices while driving. While NHTSA acknowledges that there are many available technology solutions, state laws, and consumer information campaigns designed to help reduce distracted driving, the agency believes that an important way to help mitigate the real-world risk posed by driver distraction from portable devices is for these devices to have limited functionality and simplified interfaces when they are used by drivers while driving. This is especially true because some of these devices are intended to be used while driving and others have applications that are clearly meant to be used by drivers to complete the driving task. These Guidelines are, therefore, intended to reduce the potential distraction associated with hand-held portable and aftermarket device use while driving. The agency believes these Guidelines will provide a framework for portable device and application developers to take into account real- world device use by consumers when driving. In addition, the agency notes that applications that are meant to be used by drivers while driving are likely to continue to be developed and made available. While these Guidelines help manufacturers develop portable and aftermarket devices while keeping safe driving in mind, it remains the driver’s responsibility to ensure the safe operation of the vehicle and to comply with all state traffic laws. This includes, but is not limited to laws that ban texting and/or the use of hand-held devices while driving. NHTSA and the US DOT support and will continue to support State and Federal efforts to combat distracted driving. This notice announces the proposed Phase 2 Guidelines for Portable and Aftermarket Devices. The Phase 1 Guidelines for OE in-vehicle interfaces, discussed in detail below, provide the foundation for the proposed Phase 2 Guidelines. Phase 1 provided specific recommendations for minimizing the distraction potential from OE in-vehicle interfaces that involve visual-manual interaction. Particularly, the Phase 1 Guidelines are focused on recommending acceptance criteria for driver glance behavior where single average glances away from the forward roadway are 2 seconds or less and where the sum of the durations of all individual glances away from the forward roadway are 12 seconds or less while performing a testable task, such as selecting a song from a satellite radio station. To the extent practicable, the Phase 2 Guidelines apply the Phase 1 recommendations to the visual-manual interfaces of portable devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and navigation devices) and aftermarket devices (i.e., devices installed in the vehicle after manufacture). Because there are both similarities and differences between OE interfaces and portable devices, the Phase 2 Guidelines primarily focus on portable devices. Due to the functional similarities between aftermarket devices and OE systems, the Phase 2 Guidelines direct manufacturers to the Phase 1 Guidelines. The proposed Phase 2 Guidelines present two concurrent approaches for mitigating distraction associated with the use of portable and aftermarket devices by drivers. First, the proposed Guidelines recommend that portable and OE in-vehicle systems be designed so that they can be easily paired to each other and operated through the OE in-vehicle interface. Assuming that the OE in-vehicle interface conforms to the Phase 1 Guidelines, pairing would ensure that the tasks performed by the driver while driving meet the time-based, eye-glance task acceptance criteria specified in the Phase 1 Guidelines. Pairing would also ensure that certain activities that would inherently interfere with the driver’s ability to safely control the vehicle would be locked out while driving (i.e., the “per se lock outs” referred to in the Phase 1 Guidelines). Those per se lock outs include: • Displaying video not related to driving; • Displaying certain graphical or photographic images; • Displaying automatically scrolling text; • Manual text entry for the purpose of text-based messaging, other communication, or internet browsing; and • Displaying text for reading from books, periodical publications, web page content, social media content, text-based advertising and marketing, or text-based messages. NHTSA encourages all entities involved with the engineering and design of pairing technologies to jointly develop compatible and efficient processes that focus on improving the usability and ease of connecting a driver’s portable device with their in-vehicle system. The second approach recommended by the proposed Phase 2 Guidelines is that portable devices that do not already meet the NHTSA glance and per se lock out criteria when being used by a driver should include a Driver Mode that is developed by industry stakeholders (i.e., Operating System or handset makers). The Driver Mode should present an interface to the driver that conforms with the Phase 1 Guidelines and, in particular, locks out tasks that do not meet Phase 1 task acceptance criteria or are among the per se lock outs listed above. The purpose of Driver Mode is to provide a simplified interface when the device is being used unpaired while driving, either because pairing is unavailable or the driver decides not to pair. The Guidelines recommend two methods of activating Driver Mode depending on available technology. The first option, and the one encouraged by the agency, is to automatically activate the portable device’s Driver Mode when: (1) the device is not paired with the in-vehicle system, and (2) the device, by itself, or in conjunction with the vehicle in which it is being used, distinguishes that it is being used by a driver who is driving. The driver mode does not activate when the device is being used by a non-driver, e.g., passenger. NHTSA has learned that technologies to detect whether a driver or passenger is using a device have been developed but are currently being refined such that they can reliably detect whether the device user is the driver or a passenger and are not overly annoying and impractical. Accordingly, the agency is proposing a second means of activation–manual activation of Driver Mode–meaning that Driver Mode is activated manually by the user. The agency foresees this being a temporary option in the Phase 2 Guidelines until driver-passenger distinction technology is more mature, refined, and widely available. The agency is optimistic such technology can be implemented as soon as practicable. Additionally, the Phase 2 Guidelines include recommendations for aftermarket devices– those devices that are intended to be permanently installed in the vehicle, which were not addressed in Phase 1. The proposed Phase 2 Guidelines suggest that aftermarket devices meet the same task acceptance criteria and other relevant recommendations as specified for OE interfaces in Phase 1. Due to the close relationship between the Phase 1 and Phase 2 Guidelines, the agency is considering combining the two phases into a single document when the Phase 2 Guidelines are finalized. The agency requests comment on whether a single combined document would be easier for industry to use and the public at large to reference, or whether separate documents would be simpler. Because these proposed Guidelines are voluntary and nonbinding, they will not require action of any kind, and for that reason they will not confer benefits or impose costs. Nonetheless, and as part of its continuing research efforts, NHTSA welcomes comments on the potential benefits and costs that would result from voluntary compliance with the Guidelines. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting