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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey brain

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Speaker 1: Stuff lorn volg bomb here. As some automotive safety experts

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Speaker 1: have long suspected, recent studies show that the more technology

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Speaker 1: we have in our cars, the worse we drive, and

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Speaker 1: that includes cars, infottainment systems, and active safety systems. The

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Speaker 1: American Automobile Association, or Triple A, sponsored a study that

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Speaker 1: confirms how distracted drivers get. The study was conducted by

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Speaker 1: researchers from the University of Utah and released in October.

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Speaker 1: It rated thirty different vehicles infottainment systems on their potential

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Speaker 1: to distract drivers. The study found that navigation systems were

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Speaker 1: the most demanding distractions, and that tuning the radio and

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Speaker 1: programming the navigation took driver's eyes off the road longer

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Speaker 1: than making a phone call or texting. But overall, all

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Speaker 1: infottainment tasks calling or dialing, texting, tuning the radio, or

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Speaker 1: programming the navigation were associated with higher levels of cognitive demand.

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Speaker 1: The Triple A research supports the findings of a University

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Speaker 1: of Michigan study released last summer. This study is sponsored

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Speaker 1: by an automaker, was designed to find out how drivers

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Speaker 1: were using the automaker's blind spot warning system Overwhelmingly, the

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Speaker 1: researchers found people driving cars with blind spot detection systems

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Speaker 1: tended to change lanes without ever checking for traffic on

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Speaker 1: their own. These two studies identify two main problems. First

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Speaker 1: that using some safety technology distracts drivers more, and second

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Speaker 1: that drivers use safety systems as a primary source of

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Speaker 1: input rather than as a backup. This all hints at

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Speaker 1: a third problem that automakers are racing to develop these

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Speaker 1: types of technology, and some are less cautious than others. Combined,

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Speaker 1: these factors add up to a lot more drivers paying

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Speaker 1: a lot less attention on the road. We spoke with

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Speaker 1: Bill Van Tassel, manager of driver training programs at the

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Speaker 1: Triple A. He explained the new technologies are sort of

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Speaker 1: a double edged sword. If they work properly and drivers

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Speaker 1: use them properly, there is a net safety benefit. If

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Speaker 1: it doesn't work properly or the driver changes his or

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Speaker 1: her behavior, there will be a net loss of safety.

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Speaker 1: Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows traffic

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Speaker 1: deaths increased from ten by two point six percent per

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Speaker 1: one hundred million miles driven, but those deaths weren't due

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Speaker 1: to distracted driving. Fatalities caused by distracted driving were actually

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Speaker 1: decreased by more than two percent, but the rise in

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Speaker 1: drivers not paying attention on the road is still a problem.

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Speaker 1: Right now, many drivers have access to some type of

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Speaker 1: autonomous driving technology, usually marketed as active safety systems, including

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Speaker 1: blind spot monitoring, self park or park assistance, dynamic cruise control,

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Speaker 1: which automatically follows the car in front at a safe distance,

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Speaker 1: slowing down and speeding up is necessary, lane keep assist,

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Speaker 1: which senses when a car drifts out of its lane

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Speaker 1: and helps the driver get back on track. Forward collision

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Speaker 1: warning with emergency braking, which senses when a car gets

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Speaker 1: too close to the car in front of it and

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Speaker 1: automatically applies the brakes, and systems that scan for obstacles

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Speaker 1: such as pedestrian in large animals and cyclists, often combined

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Speaker 1: with again automatic emergency braking. It's easy to imagine that

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Speaker 1: the more of these systems are found in any given car,

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Speaker 1: the less that a car's driver will believe it's necessary

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Speaker 1: to pay attention to the road. And here's where the

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Speaker 1: line gets blurred. Active safety systems are supposed to be

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Speaker 1: a backup to a driver's skills to step in if

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Speaker 1: the driver should make an error. Yet autonomous and self

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Speaker 1: driving car technology implies by its very name that the

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Speaker 1: driver won't really have to do anything behind the wheel.

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Speaker 1: Another issue is that most of these systems are still

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Speaker 1: relatively new and have only recently begun to show up

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Speaker 1: on affordable mainstream cars. That means a lot of consumers

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Speaker 1: don't know how to use them. Yet. Further complicating matters

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Speaker 1: is that there is no consistency enforced or voluntary among

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Speaker 1: the auto manufacturers, so these systems can operate very differently

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Speaker 1: between brands and models. Eventually, a true self driving car

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Speaker 1: will use all of these systems and more, networked together

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Speaker 1: to ensure the car never comes too close to neighbor, traffic,

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Speaker 1: or other obstacles. However, even then, and certainly now, drivers

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Speaker 1: are still supposed to remain in control of their vehicle.

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Speaker 1: Since many drivers already show too much confidence in active

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Speaker 1: safety systems, some safety experts worry that it will be

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Speaker 1: hard to convince people to pay attention to the road

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Speaker 1: in an even more autonomous vehicle. Experts suggest that standardizing

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Speaker 1: technology terminology will help consumers understand what they're buying and

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Speaker 1: how it really works, and further that auto manufacturers should

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Speaker 1: work with dealers to make sure that information is getting

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Speaker 1: across to their buyers. Van Tassel of Triple A maintains

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Speaker 1: that ultimately the responsibility lies with the driver. He said,

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Speaker 1: you should know what your vehicle systems will do and

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Speaker 1: what they won't do. You're the one taking the vehicle

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Speaker 1: on the road, so you need to be the one

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Speaker 1: who steps up and initiates that. As for the original

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Speaker 1: question of whether our driving skills are deteriorating, Vantassele is

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Speaker 1: a bit more optimistic. He points out that drivers now

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Speaker 1: need to learn how to use twenty or more new

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Speaker 1: kinds of technology, so in a sense, our skill sets

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Speaker 1: are expanding. In the future, traditional driving skills may no

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Speaker 1: longer be necessary, but fully autonomous cars are still a

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Speaker 1: long way off. For the time being, drivers should be

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Speaker 1: ever more vigilant and ensure they're using self driving technology

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Speaker 1: as intended. Today's episode was written by Shery's Through It

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Speaker 1: and produced by Tristan McNeil. For more on this and

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Speaker 1: lots of other distracting topics, visit our home planet, how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com.