Reflection On The Progression Of Technology In The Car

Register to read the introduction… Each advance seems to be building up so that our busy lives have minimal interruption; the car is not simply a means of transportation, but also an office, a theater, and a dining room. Getting from here to there doesn't have to be a hassle or an interruption to the work day, since people can continue what they were doing to before they got in their car, or do whatever they might be doing if they didn't have to be in the car. You can schedule a conference call on your cell phone while commuting, or have a computer read your email and trade stocks real time through OnStar's Virtual Advisor while picking the kids up from school. The more technology eliminates tiny disruptions in our lives, the more it become a necessity rather than a novelty. Remember, the popular use of cellular technology began in the early nineties as "car phones." We had lunch box sized phones plugged into the cigarette lighter or expensively hardwired into a car with calling service priced over a dollar per minute used primarily for emergencies. As technology continues to improve to offer cheaper calling plans and phones became truly mobile, cell phones have almost become a requirement of daily life. I read a statistic that by 2002 two-thirds of American adults owned a cell phone and that number continues to …show more content…
We use our auditory system to free up our busy eyes by monitoring engine noise as an awareness of acceleration without having to check the speedometer, and sensing surrounding traffic (proximity of neighboring cars, screeching brakes, and oncoming ambulances). Less obvious is our use of the biomechanical system (controlling the steering wheel, and gas and brake pedals, turning on the blinker signals, monitoring vibrations and taking vestibular cues while turning) and the cognitive system (anticipation, avoidance of hazards, calling on experience and remembering directions). Cell phones can eat up attention from each of these senses – locating and dialing the phone, holding the phone, and listening to and engaging in conversation. Some studies suggest that cell phone conversations lead to thirty percent longer braking times, slower reaction times and impaired judgment in …show more content…
Isn't it better that a driver perform alert and focused driving instead of becoming even more dependant on technology that wouldn't be necessary if we weren't so dependant on some technology in the first place? Isn't it better to focus on the task at hand – driving – instead of trying to fit the rest of our life into a car ride? What really is the benefit of being able to multi-task every aspect of our lives? Are people who talk on the cell phone for fifteen minutes while driving home from work really saving an extra fifteen minutes to spend reading to their children? It seems the more we are able to do at once, the more there is to do. The more there is to do, the more we depend on technology to make life easier and get things done. And what is the cost of technology allowing us to accumulate more and more to do? We can see the fatal influence of technology on driver distraction in numbers, but our reliance on technology could be having more subtle effects in our