KS Appeal: Danger from Infotainment - Flying Blind in the Car

The automobile club KS e.V. has investigated the problems of operating modern vehicles via touch screen displays and points out numerous dangers associated with it. The screens are now indispensable in modern vehicles, they are becoming larger and often overloaded with information, or due to a complex menu navigation require significant attention, the club states. At the same time, more and more functions – both for vehicle operation and for infotainment and navigation – are being bundled into a central control unit on the center console. Before the rise of displays, switches and buttons in the vehicle had fixed assigned functions: seat heating, air conditioning, car radio – everything could be felt in case of doubt, without taking one's eyes off the road, the club laments. The situation is different today when operating various functions via a display. Attention shifts from the road to the display. To reach the desired function, one generally has to click through a navigation menu first.

“The crux of the matter is: The driver has to take his or her eyes off the road and pay attention to operating the display. And that can become highly dangerous,” explains Isabella Finsterwalder, spokesperson for the automobile club KS e.V.

Because while the gaze wanders to the display, the distance is covered blindly. At a speed of 50 km/h, this is almost 14 meters per second, while on the highway at 120 km/h it is even around 33 meters in one second. StVO: brief, adapted glance at the device. And how does the law handle electronic devices or displays while driving? Section 23 (1a) of the Road Traffic Regulations (StVO) stipulates that the driver of a vehicle may "only use an electronic device that serves or is intended to serve communication, information, or organization if the device is neither picked up nor held and either only a voice control and reading function is used or the device is operated and used only with a brief, road, traffic, view, and weather conditions adapted glance at the device while simultaneously diverting the view from the traffic situation."

“The key point here is the adapted glance at the device. Even just two seconds can mean a quasi-blindly covered distance of almost 30 meters in urban areas and more than 75 meters at highway speeds. These two seconds are often not enough to switch a desired function on or off — especially with unfamiliar rental cars, inadequate menu navigation, or overly large displays, this is often a big challenge. Specifically: If, for example, you have to laboriously search for the dipped beam or windshield wiper speed in a submenu, a pedestrian or a swerving vehicle can quickly be overlooked, or the safety distance to the car ahead can be reduced," Finsterwalder further outlines.