Automotive IT News and Facts
The US administration released guidelines Monday that include concrete measures to reduce driver distraction. The recommendations, issued by the Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), call on automakers to disable manual text entry for messaging and internet browsing while a car is in motion; not include video-based entertainment and communications in infotainment systems; and [...]
Autonomous driving is likely to start with commercial vehicles rather than with passenger cars, a senior Continental executive said Tuesday. “I think it’s easier to realize with trucks, which move at a slower speed, tend to stick to the right lane and already often drive in a cue on the highway,” said Michael Ruf, who [...]
The number of in-car displays will rise sharply as infotainment becomes a more important part of the car, Frost & Sullivan said in a report. The researchers predicted that the market for central displays in Europe alone will more than double to 9.5 million units by 2017 from 4 million units last year. In North [...]
For most drivers many new electronics functions in passenger cars are difficult to manage, according to a recent survey carried out in Germany by DEKRA, a major testing and certification company. In the survey, 77 pc of all drivers had trouble operating in-car electronic devices, with 40 pc worried that too much technology can be [...]
Further improvements are needed in the way drivers control the growing array of infotainment and safety features in the car, Frost & Sullivan said in a recent analysis. The researchers said cars’ so-called human machine interface (HMI) will increasingly integrate the controls of various functions into a single system. This will help reduce complexity and [...]
US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he doesn’t support a call by the country’s National Transportation Safety Board to bar drivers from making any phone calls at all while behind the wheel. “The problem is not hands-free,” LaHood told reporters, according to a report in the Detroit News. Instead the US administration official said efforts [...]
A poll conducted by Ford in major European markets found that drivers continue to use handheld mobile phones, despite increased legislation aimed at curbing driver distraction. The survey of more than 4,300 drivers in Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Britain also showed that many European car drivers eat, drink, apply make-up, send text messages or [...]
inthinc Technology Solutions has been awarded a patent covering driving safety technology related to cell phone and text detection. The US-based telematics company said the patent will help it make products that combat distracted driving. The patent covers technology that detects in-car cell phone usage. The system then coaches the driver to refrain from using [...]
Driver distraction remains a potential barrier to the introduction of new infotainment features in the car, several industry executives said Wednesday. “Distraction is a factor,” said Mike Sena, vice president European development at Hughes Telematics. Added Andy Knotts, ITS senior manager at Japanese supplier Denso: “Driver distraction is one of the biggest challenges we have [...]
