Mutual Interferences of Driving and Texting Performance

Abstract

Despite legislative and social campaigns to reduce texting while driving, drivers continue to text behind the wheel. There is abundant evidence demonstrating that texting while driving impairs driving performance. While past driver distraction research has focused on how texting influences driving, the influence of driving on texting behaviors is often ignored. This study used a classic Lane Change Task and a smartphone texting application to study the mutual influences of driving and texting. Results showed that concurrent texting impaired driving by increasing variability in lane position. Meanwhile, driving impaired texting by increasing the texting task completion time and texting errors, and reduced texting key entry speed. The finding of mutual interferences of driving and texting provides new knowledge for social campaigns, which intend to persuade drivers not to drive while texting, and importantly provides a scientific basis for the development of smartphone-based technology to reduce the risky behavior of driving while texting.

Smartphone-Based Vehicle Telematics: A Ten-Year Anniversary

“…Each smartphone can then compare the recorded audio with its own unique pre-stored voice signature, and can thereby identify the seat of the smartphone owner. Some additional approaches to driver/passenger classification are to identify drivers from their driving characteristics, so called driver fingerprinting [196], to position smartphones in the vehicle using Bluetooth or near field communication [192], to use smartphone cameras [197], or to detect texting while driving based on texting characteristics [198]. A selection of publications related to driver/passenger classification are summarized in Table VIII. 3) Supplementary information sources: Several supplementary information sources can be employed to improve the navigation estimates.…”

A brief review on palletized products transportation technology

“…As an example, one out of six adults say they have been so caught up in their conversations that they have bumped into a person or an object while walking and talking on a phone [9]. Likewise, the National Safety Council estimated that 281,000 to 786,000 crashes in 2012 involved text messaging [10].…”

Driving and Texting Performance When Drivers Text Behind the Wheel

“…In a study by the research group at Wichita State University, a classic Lane Change Task (LCT) and a car-following task were used to measure driving performance; a custom Android application logged the texting performance. Results showed that texting impaired driving performance by increasing brake response time and the standard deviation of lane positions [6,13]. Both the LCT and car-following tasks impaired texting by reducing the texting speed and increasing the texting errors.…”

“…Driving and texting require the same visual and cognitive resources, thus driving and texting performance can both be impaired when drivers text behind the wheel. A mutual interference of texting and driving performance has been reported [6].…”

“…Driving also impairs texting performance [6,13]. In a study by the research group at Wichita State University, a classic Lane Change Task (LCT) and a car-following task were used to measure driving performance; a custom Android application logged the texting performance.…”