As soon as real-time data and monitoring information is introduced in the car, people start changing their driving behavior, prior to driving and during a drive. Our driving behavior will change dramatically over the next decade and the change will be adopted by digital natives currently entering the driving-force, not us old-fogies. There are new technology and media startups pursuing a number of these application areas.
I, for one, have stopped thinking about pre-planning how to get somewhere - with my Dash GPS device, I just get in the car and go. I misplaced my Dash device last week and genuinely missed the ETA feature as well as had the angst of not knowing when I'd run into traffic jams and got delayed between meetings.
The Toyota Prius, in my opinion, is doing this with its game-like interface (see photo below, source: Gary Rhymes/Flickr). People play this game while driving, trying to optimize their mileage and keep the bars between certain levels. And efficient driving saves you money as well.
Communications/messaging is another one - people risk their lives to check email.
Real-time information has some funny though serious effects on drivers as well. Check out some of these headlines:
- Bus driver says he was using GPS before crash - The Seattle Times
- A charter-bus driver who crashed into a low pedestrian bridge in the Washington Park Arboretum on Wednesday, sending more than 20 members of the Garfield High School softball team to the hospital, said he was following a GPS system and did not see signs warning of the bridge's height, police said. ...Abegg said Adams was using his own GPS device, which gave him the option to select whether he was using a car, bus or motorcycle — he chose the bus selection. ...Abegg said the GPS system did not appear to factor in the height of bridges on the route.
- Drivers on edge over cliff route - BBC News
- Drivers following satellite navigation systems through a village called Crackpot have been directed along a track at the edge of a 100ft cliff. ... "...we get a lot of sales reps in posh cars coming and they get so cross."
- Sat-nav dunks dozy drivers in deep water - Times Online
- Julie Jackson, 45, of Carterton, Oxfordshire, and her mother, Delcie Fielder, 70, had to abandon their Rover 220 in mid-stream after “we heard this gurgling sound and water came right into the car, covering our feet”.
- Driver Blames GPS For Driving On Railroad Tracks, Getting Hit By Train - New York Times
- The 32-year-old man, a computer maven, ... according to Metro-North, he ended up making a right turn onto the railroad tracks and getting the undercarriage of his rented Ford Focus wedged between the rails. The man calmly hauled out his suitcase, called 911 and waited to wave the train to a stop. But the train couldn’t brake in time and ended up dragging the car for 100 feet until it burst into a fireball.
How do we put all these new information technologies to work in a way that is safe as well as entertaining?
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