During this past summer, as auto manufacturers rolled out 2013 models, dozens of articles appeared describing their new “connected car” features — dashboard mounted screens synched to smart phones, console cradles for iPads, handwriting recognition, touch screens with Facebook and Twitter access, swipe and pinch capability for photos and maps, joysticks, rotating hand controls, voice-activated GPS, connections to The Cloud, and much more. The writers (Consumer Reports in particular) alternatively marveled at and bemoaned the “arms race” among car makers. They noted that the fast-paced introduction of this array of new and untested devices is essentially the auto industry experimenting on-the-fly with driver safety, because the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has issued only voluntary guidelines on electronic devices, the dangers of these new devices are unknown, and no agency or organization has had time to evaluate these technologies from a safety standpoint, except to compare which ones have more steps and thus the potential of take the drivers’ hands or eyes off the road for longer periods.

Some of these new devices make texting look simple by comparison.

The distractions and resulting dangers of these new in-car features, and the issue of the federal and state governments trying to keep pace with them, is a separate subject, but let me pose this question to parents and adults supervising teen drivers: Can you effectively warn teens about the dangers of driving and texting, or using other electronic devices, when your car has the latest distracting technologies and you use them while your car is in motion?

I am increasingly worried about the side effects of these new dashboard technologies on teen driving (and hope you are also). One part of the concern, of course, is newly-licensed teens driving solo in a car with a complex and confusing array of electronics, but perhaps the bigger problem is how the presence of these electronics in the car can undermine the no-electronics message that parents and supervising adults should send to teens.

I don’t have a magic answer to this question beside the obvious one: Don’t use these electronic devices and capabilities when the car is in motion. In other words, if you must post a tweet, order movie tickets, review a restaurant, or update your Facebook page from your car, at least pull over to a safe stopping place first. The danger of course is not the technology or the car, but use of the two at the same time. The only way to have these technological capabilities in the car and also be a role model for your teens is to stop driving before you avail yourselves of the car’s electronic features.

A reminder to parents about two topics I have posted about previously: wearing headphones, and using a GPS.

I came across an article from the Canadian version of the Huffington Post, reporting on two separate incidents in which teen drivers were killed when they cars crossed train tracks. Both were wearing headphones at the time, which prevented them from hearing the approaching trains and then from hearing the warning sirens until it was too late to move out of the way. As stated in my previous post, ears are an essential part of a driver’s safety, and blocking a driver’s hearing with earpieces or headphones is a dangerous practice.

More recently, The New York Times carried an article by Randall Stross entitled “When GPS Confuses, You May Be to Blame” (September 2, 2012),
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/technology/gps-and-human-error-can-lead-drivers-astray-digital-domain.html?_r=1

The piece tells the funny story of a man from San Diego who used the GPS function on his phone when he arrived on the East Coast, and then finally figured out that the system was directing him to his home in San Diego, not his local business meeting. But then the piece discusses a frightening variety of navigation troubles that GPS users can encounter by putting in the wrong destination, not following the turn-by-turn directions as they are given by the GPS, or being impatient while the GPS recalculates a route thrown off by driver error.

The GPS pointers for teen drivers are simple: They are an electronic device. They are distracting. They are not infallible. Teens may think that just because the GPS says to turn that it is safe to do so. If you are sending a teen driver on the road with a GPS as his or her driving directions, you are multiplying the dangers of an already dangerous situation.

In my recent post entitled “Safe Teen Driving On The Front Page,” I reviewed a New York Times article that spotlighted teen driver passenger restrictions and vehicle decals, with a focus on New Jersey’s strict laws. As most newspapers do today, the Times then offered readers space to comment on its article. Below, some quotes from those comments, views that in my experience are typical of the perspectives advocated following articles about safe teen driving.

The first comment that caught my eye was this rant from a teen: “My mother drifts all the time and my father takes his hands off the steering wheel, both pause to talk on the phone/lecture me while driving… and I’m supposed to the one in the family that needs to be watched over by the government? It’s funny how the one group being targeted by my state’s politicians are the one group that is powerless to vote against them, isn’t it?”

From a driver who evidently supports graduated licensing: “The world is full of teens who are selfish, arrogant, reckless, who aren’t regulated by their parents, who live in their own personal music video/reality show and put a text or song on their iPod before their own safety and others. Therefore, the need for laws.”

One parent took aim at government intruding: “How dare you project your parenting style onto mine?”

Another writer put a sharp point on the dangers of texting: “Just like you don’t point a loaded gun at anyone you should not be allowed to text and drive.”

Responding to a comment from a parent who seemed dismissive of the dangers of teen drivers with passengers, a parent observed, “Do you think the accident your daughter might have with three of her friends in the car will only be a single car accident?”

A young adult argued: ” If I’d grown up under the more restrictive laws this article talks about, I don’t know where I’d be today. I couldn’t have worked or participated in after-school sports or other activities that helped me become the responsible and successful adult I am today.”

And from another parent: ” To frame [teen driving] as an issue of individual liberty misses the mark because liberty presupposes a corresponding responsibility, which is exactly what is not yet fully developed in the teenage mind.”

One of the nice things about writing a blog is that you get the last word. My responses to these comments:

- As to teen driving laws being strict because teens can’t vote, I seriously doubt that any legislator takes into account that the people being regulated are only 16 or 17, if only because they will soon turn 18!

- To the parent who took offense at government imposing on her parenting, I would urge that teen driving laws spotlight the situations that most often lead to crashes, and to see them as an imposition on parenting misunderstands the dangers of driving.

- To the self-described responsible young adult whose development as a person would have been inhibited by strict teen drivers laws: graduated driver licensing does not inhibit employment opportunities or participation in school or community activities. In fact, it protects teens from injury so their opportunities are preserved. Moreover, nighttime curfews typically exempt employment and school activities. Passenger restrictions might make it more difficult on occasion for teens to get around town, but the inconvenience is minor and pales in comparison to safety.

- And to the person who reminded us that teen driving laws don’t curtail liberty but recognize that the teen brain is not fully mature, I say “Exactly.”