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by aclissold 3907 days ago
On the topic of boredom and attention lapses while driving, I wonder if it would actually be made safer by being made more difficult, in contrast to the never-ending search for ease of use. Something that's difficult, mentally stimulating, and requires actual skill like a video game or musical instrument. Would there be more or less mistakes (collisions) if people were forced to be engaged 100% of the time in order to operate the vehicle?

I'm not saying it's a good idea, because only a subset of people would be capable of it, but it's interesting to think about!
4 comments
TeMPOraL 3907 days ago
> Would there be more or less mistakes (collisions) if people were forced to be engaged 100% of the time in order to operate the vehicle?

I think there would be less mistakes, but the problem is, you can't sustain the required level of engagement for long. 100% concentration for 15 minutes? Sure. 30? Yes. One hour? Maybe. Three hours? Probably not.

Though, come to think of it, one hour would probably be enough to cover like 95% cases of commuting.

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lukaslalinsky 3907 days ago
When I'm on a highway, I like driving a little faster than the cars around me precisely for this reason. If I drive just 1 km/h faster, I need to switch lanes and overtake cars occasionally, which brings some action into the driving. And the funny thing is, I usually do it while using cruise control. So I think it's not about a technical challenge, it's about changing what is happening around you and having the need to be aware of the changes.
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agumonkey 3907 days ago
Taken to some extreme, people realized that safer roads, no trees on the sides, aren't that safer, they just make people lazier and keep crashing even when trees have been removed, faster.
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sgibat 3907 days ago
this is why many people prefer driving a manual.
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burkemw3 3907 days ago
Including me, so I tried to find some statistics to see if a manual was enough to focus on. I didn't find much.

I found one Swedish study that looked at automatic and manual transmissions affect on young and old drivers' ability to turn left across traffic [1]. It found a manual had little impact on the young driver, and older drivers performed worse.

I'm not sure turning left across traffic is a large enough sample of driving for me to be satisfied.

[1] http://acrs.org.au/files/arsrpe/Why%20drive%20manual%20-%20a...

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