Ford Researcher Says Teen Drivers are Easily Distracted From Driving

Okay....you're "anti-teen" Scott. ;-) Good thing you're past that
age...huh?

"Scott en Aztlán" > wrote in message
...
> On KCET (one of the local PBS stations in SoCal) there was a show on
> this afternoon called Scientific American Frontiers hosted by Alan
> Alda. One of the segments in the program involved a driving siumulator
> at Ford which does a pretty kickass job of simulating the driving
> experience - it's a dome suspended on hydraulic stilts, much like a
> flight simulator, with a 360 degree computer generated view of the
> area around the car. They put Alan Alda behind the wheel of a mock
> Taurus and measured his ability to track potentially dangerous
> activity both in front of him and behind him while he also tried to
> dial a handheld cellular phone. The Ford researcher said that normal
> adults are aware of about 97% of the events that occur in front of
> them and behind them when they are completely focused on their
> driving; that number drops to about 87% when the adult is dialing a
> cell phone. When they perform the same test on teenagers they expected
> the teenagers to do better because of their familiarity with
> videogames and a generally better ability to multitask. They were
> surprised to discover that the teenagers' awareness of the potentially
> dangerous events dropped to only 47%! In other words, teens missed
> MORE THAN HALF of potentially dangerous events that occured on the
> road around them while they were dialing a cell phone.
>
> Go ahead - tell me I'm "anti-teen" now.
>
> --
> Life is short - drive fast!
> http://www.geocities.com/scottenaztlan/

"Scott en Aztlán" > wrote in message
...
> On KCET (one of the local PBS stations in SoCal) there was a show on
> this afternoon called Scientific American Frontiers hosted by Alan
> Alda. One of the segments in the program involved a driving siumulator
> at Ford which does a pretty kickass job of simulating the driving
> experience - it's a dome suspended on hydraulic stilts, much like a
> flight simulator, with a 360 degree computer generated view of the
> area around the car. They put Alan Alda behind the wheel of a mock
> Taurus and measured his ability to track potentially dangerous
> activity both in front of him and behind him while he also tried to
> dial a handheld cellular phone. The Ford researcher said that normal
> adults are aware of about 97% of the events that occur in front of
> them and behind them when they are completely focused on their
> driving; that number drops to about 87% when the adult is dialing a
> cell phone. When they perform the same test on teenagers they expected
> the teenagers to do better because of their familiarity with
> videogames and a generally better ability to multitask. They were
> surprised to discover that the teenagers' awareness of the potentially
> dangerous events dropped to only 47%! In other words, teens missed
> MORE THAN HALF of potentially dangerous events that occured on the
> road around them while they were dialing a cell phone.

How did the teens rate when they weren't using a phone?

Also, how familier were both groups with dialing and driving prior to the
study?

In article >, Scott en Aztlán wrote:

> dial a handheld cellular phone. The Ford researcher said that normal
> adults are aware of about 97% of the events that occur in front of
> them and behind them when they are completely focused on their
> driving; that number drops to about 87% when the adult is dialing a
> cell phone.

This would mean that most of the blocking, etc is done on purpose.


> When they perform the same test on teenagers they expected
> the teenagers to do better because of their familiarity with
> videogames and a generally better ability to multitask. They were
> surprised to discover that the teenagers' awareness of the potentially
> dangerous events dropped to only 47%! In other words, teens missed
> MORE THAN HALF of potentially dangerous events that occured on the
> road around them while they were dialing a cell phone.

They don't understand what is dangerous. Remember nobody is taught how to
drive. Like the idiot teen who cut me off and ruined the TW car.

Brent P wrote:

> They don't understand what is dangerous. Remember nobody is taught how to
> drive. Like the idiot teen who cut me off and ruined the TW car.

Was he ever cited for it (or did you take him to court over it)?

In article >, Arif Khokar wrote:
> Brent P wrote:
>
>> They don't understand what is dangerous. Remember nobody is taught how to
>> drive. Like the idiot teen who cut me off and ruined the TW car.
>
> Was he ever cited for it (or did you take him to court over it)?

The adjustor for his insurance is giving the '**** off' rutine. I am consistantly
annoying him with logic. The adjuster is claiming because I braked to avoid a
collision, thusly allowing the kid fully into my lane where the kid then slammed
on the brakes, it's not the kid's fault. Because if the kid didn't slam on the
brakes, my evasive manuvers would have been successful.

As far as sueing, I am undecided. I can probably recover the money I put into the
car by declaring the book value loss on my taxes.

In article >, Scott en Aztlán wrote:

> Teenagers, due to lack of experience,
> seem to make the assumption that all the vehicles around them are
> going to continue to behave themselves,

This is the assumption the kid made when he cut me off. He assumed nobody
would do that to him immediately after he did it.

Dim recollections of my teen years, combined with much opportunity to
watch others undergo the same ordeal, make me think that sustaining
attention and prioritizing the most immediately important tasks are
much bigger feats for them than for adults.

When so many experiences and stimuli are all so new, and are filtered
through a witch's brew of a still changing balance of still relatively
unfamiliar hormones, it's just hard to stay on task.

My guess is that although specific knowledge and experience has a lot
to do with it, basically we grown-ups are safer drivers for the same
reasons that our evenings, attitudes, and lives in general are
horrifyingly dull (as viewed by teenagers).


--Joe

> dangerous events dropped to only 47%! In other words, teens missed
> MORE THAN HALF of potentially dangerous events that occured on the
> road around them while they were dialing a cell phone.

They needed research to tell them this?

On Sun, 08 May 2005 15:02:39 -0700, Scott en Aztlán
> wrote:

>On KCET (one of the local PBS stations in SoCal) there was a show on
>this afternoon called Scientific American Frontiers hosted by Alan
>Alda. One of the segments in the program involved a driving siumulator
>at Ford which does a pretty kickass job of simulating the driving
>experience - it's a dome suspended on hydraulic stilts, much like a
>flight simulator, with a 360 degree computer generated view of the
>area around the car. They put Alan Alda behind the wheel of a mock
>Taurus and measured his ability to track potentially dangerous
>activity both in front of him and behind him while he also tried to
>dial a handheld cellular phone. The Ford researcher said that normal
>adults are aware of about 97% of the events that occur in front of
>them and behind them when they are completely focused on their
>driving; that number drops to about 87% when the adult is dialing a
>cell phone. When they perform the same test on teenagers they expected
>the teenagers to do better because of their familiarity with
>videogames and a generally better ability to multitask. They were
>surprised to discover that the teenagers' awareness of the potentially
>dangerous events dropped to only 47%! In other words, teens missed
>MORE THAN HALF of potentially dangerous events that occured on the
>road around them while they were dialing a cell phone.
>
>Go ahead - tell me I'm "anti-teen" now.

You're anti-teen. Of course they did worse then someone who's been
driving for 50 years. They've only been driving for a year or two.
--
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Scott en Aztlán wrote:

> The Ford researcher had an interesting explanation:
>
> When adults dial a cell phone, they a) hold the phone as close to
> their line of sight as possible, minimizing the distance their eyes
> have to move to go between the road and the phone, and b) they divide
> the dialing task into short bits, returning their attention to the
> road between each digit or two. Teenagers, due to lack of experience,
> seem to make the assumption that all the vehicles around them are
> going to continue to behave themselves, so they take their eyes off
> the road for the entire time they are dialing.

Crumbs!

A Ford researcher with, it seems, a decent dose of clue, eh?

He couldn't have been a Volvo researcher in disguise, could he?

No? S'pose so: a Volvo researcher would fully have expected Alda to
do better than a teenager, and spent his kronor on some real research.

:-)