Hello,
I have been asked to look into how companies are approaching hands free and driving. Do companies allow this or is this banned due to still being a distraction.

If anyone has any comments or knows of any recent research etc.. Much would be appreciated.
Thanks
Katie

Based on recent reports Tesla hand free needs quite a bit of work as does Google car.

Regarding mobile phones being used hands free the RAC recently published a report re-stating that the distraction of using even hands free was an unacceptable risk.

Looking for a link and the scourge of smartphones is apparently worse - "Pokemon" gotta catch them all!

http://www.rac.co.uk/dri...motoring-safety-concerns

Thanks both.

On your original question according to a survey in Fleet News @ 70% of company drivers work under a policy which permits hands free calls

http://www.fleetnews.co....ght-for-hands-free-calls

Which followed on from the news item

http://www.fleetnews.co....isk-of-hands-free-phones

and an earlier article

http://www.fleetnews.co....-held-devices-says-brake

Their research report page can be found at

http://www.brakepro.org/...actions-including-phones

I read all these reports of how dangerous the use of hands free kits are with interest. I am not sure how they are undertaken but i'm guessing they are done in a lab on a simulator. The problem with this is the person knows they are being tested so for me the results without hand free use are flawed. What about all the other distractions to the driver? talking to the passenger, singing along to the radio, watching the driver in front who has been swerving all over the road so you miss the motor bike traveling down the white line.

If we banned everything for a driver that may distract them so they pay full concentration on the road are we then running the risk of suffering fatigue. Also if anyone has looked at the video of two teams playing basket ball trying to count the number of passes you will know the tricks the human mind can play on you.

Sorry but that's my old science training coming out - always question how research is done!

This is a subject that really drives me up the wall, if you'll excuse the pun. There are so many distractions available to drivers in modern cars and times, I wonder how any of them manage to keep in a straight line (oh, hang on, some of them don't). Fiddling with the stereo, programming the satnav, looking at maps/papers/laptops, talking on the phone; and now just to make things worse, we have Pokémon appearing in various places for people to play with on their phones (I also saw a picture of Mariokart now on satnavs, but can't decide if this is a wind up).

Perhaps we ought to have driverless cars - people clearly don't have the time or attention to drive themselves these days. My personal view is that most of the distractions should be either stripped out of cars, or prevented from being fiddled with whilst moving. We have the technology, we don't have the common sense and politicians with the backbone to make this happen.

Anyone driving a car is in charge of a killing machine, and has a responsibility to control it. Driving should be considered a privilege that has to be earned, not a right. Building cars that increasingly protect the drivers and passengers is missing the whole point about road safety.

I ride a motorbike. Riding requires constant attention, you can't let your attention wander or get distracted, and you don't have the distractions available to modern car drivers. I think this makes riders better road users, as we are concentrating on what we're doing, we have to, to avoid the muppets yattering on mobiles etc whilst driving.

Katie

When I showed our Chief Exec the RoSPA research indicating that the risk of using hands free was equivalent to being over the (then) drink driving limit, he immediately prohibited all our staff from this activity in 2000

Caused a bit of a stir with some of our lab managers, but all settled down and ban still in place.

Not been questioned for years and years.

Most modern cars have voice activation where you do not need to fiddle with controls on the dash or steering wheel, but saying that I saw a police car driving down the motorway with the police officer holding his radio on his shoulder and talking.

I believe that studies have demonstrated using a hands-free phone distracts over and above talking to a passenger in the car. One of the suggested explanations for this is that a passenger is much more aware of the road and will react accordingly, e.g. talking less around difficult driving situations.

The weight of literature on this topic is becoming pretty convincing, in my opinion.

Cars will be driving themselves soon enough, so the problem will be having enough to do on the journey to keep us distracted.

I'm sorry I have looked at all the posted links and not one of them gives the rational of how the research was carried out - "believing" that hand free is a bigger risk than other distractions does not make it true, neither does the weight of publications on the subject - many of which will just be quoting the same piece of research! Remember we used to believe the world was flat, and some countries claim white asbestos is safe!
I'm not saying that hands free kits are without issue its just the scientist in me that questions research papers - I've written a few myself so I know some of the tricks to play!