Cogosense Blog

Cogosense's Driver Behaviour Blog

NHTSA new study + Aegis Mobility 2014 Distracted Driving Survey

Despite the growing awareness, media coverage, accidents and fatalities from distracted driving, we have seen a steady trend in responses to our annual survey. Company attitudes and their approach to managing distracted driving have changed little over the past few years. What has changed is a drop in the level of confidence respondents have in the enforcement methods being used. On the one hand we have growing awareness of the distracted driving problem, while on the other we have decreasing confidence in policy enforcement. And the response seems to be to stick with the same monitoring and enforcement methods. Is it time for a new approach?

The NHTSA just released a new study that shows Distracted Driving accounts for 15% of economic impact motor crashes cause, which tallies up to $129 billion when looking at the overall societal harm caused by these crashes.  Surely it is time to take a more proactive approach and look at technology solutions to help curb these distractions and further promote safe driving behaviors.

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4th Annual Distracted Driving Survey

Aegis Mobility is conducting our 4th Annual Distracted Driving Survey this April for Distracted Driving Awareness month. To participate for a chance to win an iPad Mini visit the below link:

Take Survey Now!

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Over-Connected and Behind the Wheel: A Summit on Technological Solutions to Distracted Driving

This month, we joined Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation) in Washington for a day of meetings focused on the distracted driving problem and technology solutions.

In addition to Aegis, panel attendees included Apple, Google, Samsung, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Toyota and GM. The videos of the three sessions can be found here -

  1. The State of Distracted Drivingb2ap3_thumbnail_senate-seal.png
  2. The State of Technology
  3. Where Do We Go From Here?

Highlights of the day included:

  • Universal agreement on the severity of the problem
  • Clear opinion from Senator Rockefeller that industry, in pursuit of technology promotion and profits, may have placed responsibilities to society and safety as secondary
  • This led to good debate regarding the benefits of technology in saving lives (ex. OnStar) and the challenges of restricting consumers' choice
  • Senator Rockefeller gave compelling arguments that it is our collective responsibility to offer not just "what consumers want" but products that are designed for safe and responsible use
  • While there are many stakeholders with varying interests, it was clear that there is substantial collaboration within the industry to continually improve solutions and accelerate market adoption

The event was very useful to advance the dialogue amongst the key constituents responsible for providing technology solutions and Aegis applauds the Senator's leadership on this important topic.

At Aegis we continue to work with the leaders in the mobile device, mobile carrier, automobile and insurance industries to advance solutions. With our pioneering partnership with the State of Iowa, we are also beginning to deliver solutions through State governments.

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Why Distraction Is So Dangerous And What Can We Do About It

Very good article today in Forbes by David DiSalvo featuring an interview with Dr. David Simons (author of the bestselling book "The Invisible Gorilla").

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On the topic of distracted driving, Dr. Simons said:

  • The more attention we devote to gadgets, the less we have available to spot unexpected dangers. In part, the danger comes from our lack of awareness of our own limits. When we’re distracted, we don’t notice that we’re distracted.
  • What we can do is take steps to limit the consequences of those distractions when they matter most. Perhaps those problems can be addressed through technology (e.g., finding a way to prevent texting by a driver while still permitting it by passengers). But, doing so requires better recognition of the risk in the first place.

The full article can be found here.

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Technology Can Fix What It Broke

A great blog post by a master marketeer, Seth Godin, today. He comments on the unlikelihood of emotional appeals, such as the recent Werner Herzog short film, to change deeply entrenched values and behaviours in our culture:

  • The culture of the car as a haven, a roving office, and a place
    where you do what you like
  • The culture of the Marlboro man, no speed limiters in cars,
    'optional' speed limits on roads
  • The culture of connection and our fear of being left out
  • The culture of technology, and our bias to permit it first
    and ask questions later

He notes that part of the solution could be notifying others of a driver's status as they could be held liable for knowingly causing dangerous distractions. However, he summarizes the most "inexpensive, fast and effective" solution perfectly:

... when a phone is moving, don't permit it to accomplish certain tasks.

People won't die as a result.

It won't cost the companies a penny in profit.

And defenders of the status quo will scream about freedom and access and rights and how it used to be. They will worry about people on trains or passengers in carpools.

But you know what? It's better than being dead. Better than being the victim of the one out of three drivers I see who couldn't wait ...

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