New cars such as the Ford Edge, Lincoln MKX, and the Audi A6 let travellers to connect to the Internet from the front seat. These Online connections over Wi-Fi or 3G networks allow motorists to enjoy streaming video, audio, spoken text messages, and current traffic information. We usually view tech advancements as a positive. But connectivity in the car begs a major question: Is this a good thing?
Challenges of the Connected Car
Drivers get distracted and this may result in accidents. In fact, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 80 % of all accidents involve driver inattention within 3 seconds of the impact. So, this being true, imagine how distracted the driver would be if there is an interesting YouTube video playing on an in-car screen.
Does Tech Distract Drivers?
Anything that takes a driver’s attention from the road can be a threat. Whether it’s texting, making calls, or just having a friend in the car. Many states have made it illegal to text while driving because of this. This is the main reason why the news that cars are coming out with 3G connections doesn’t make everyone jump for joy.
Browsing the Web Inside Your Car
Regardless of how we feel regarding this, unless laws are put into place stopping it, people will soon have the ability to stream YouTube videos, Google an answer to a question, and correspond via social media sites in their cars. Maybe the next step should be to increase the self-driving aspects to cars; but perhapsthat would disconnect us even more to the world around us.
As we said before, we usually think of advancements in technology as a positive thing, however, the possible negative effects that connected cars could have make us stop and think. While having all of these tech features in our cars improves enjoyment on the highway it’s vital that they don’t become a disruption to the driver.
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