A Statistical View Point of Road Accidents due to Mobile Phone Usage while Driving

Abstract

Abstract

The proliferation of mobile technology and its widespread use has created an environment of achieving more while driving. Reports related to road accidents estimate that nearly 1.4 million crashes occur as a consequence of drivers being engaged in phone conversation and almost 2 lakh crashes involve distraction due to texts and emails. Driving requires abilities such as attention, memory, judgment, perceptuomotor skills and decision making. The current mobile interface available in market has limitations to adapt to users environment thus it cannot effectively be customized to driving scenario. By a cognitive distraction test conducted using car simulator was seen that driver deviated from the lane 32.5% more times and missed turn signals 31.9% more on an average than drivers without any distraction. Therefore, there is a scope to design user interface (UI) that would address driver distraction holistically and understand user’s behaviour and pain points that would not only make driving experience safer but also create value in terms of driving convenience.

Keywords: Mobile technology, cognitive distraction, user interface, driver behaviour, road accidents