Regarding inattentive driving, Wisconsin legislature states that “no person while driving a motor vehicle may be engaged or occupied with an activity, other than driving the vehicle, that interferes or reasonably appears to interfere with the person’s ability to drive the vehicle.” See Wis. Stat § 346.89. A prohibited activity could be anything that takes away from driving; including but are not limited to eating, drinking, talking, and texting. Although a driver’s own thoughts and handheld devices could be distractions, so could the passengers that he or she allows to ride along. Although many car brands like BMW, Chrysler, Ford, GM, and Toyota, had already begun to address the issue of texting and driving, other notable car brands began to follow suit when texting and driving was outlawed in December 2010. Continuous advancement in technology such as instant communication had become an addiction, and in order for car brands to continue to stay relevant, they needed to interact with upcoming technology as much as possible. The automation industry took it upon themselves to install technology within the vehicle that allows the driver to connect his handheld device to the in-vehicle information system and use the system as his “eyes and hands”, to prevent the driver from being distracted. Functions the driver could instruct the system to do could include music play, making calls, or sending text messages.

 

However, while having an in-vehicle information system perform the physical work for a driver decreases the amount of work the driver would need to do himself, it does not keep the driver from becoming distracted, as it instructs the in-vehicle system or receives a call or text from it. A study conducted in 2017 by nonprofit organization American Automobile Association Foundation found that drivers who were using voice and touch based technology became distracted for more than 24 seconds to finish a task. With in-vehicle systems distractions, drivers are still distracting themselves when attempting to complete a task. Understand that these 24 seconds used while on the road could be the equivalent of a life gone, an accident occurring, or the result of a personal injury. If a high-level of seriousness was realized, approximately “10 percent of fatal crashes, 15 percent of injury crashes and 14 percent of all police-reported motor vehicles traffic crashes in 2015” would not be the result of distraction affected crashes (Quentin Fottrell, Your actual car is just as distracting as texting and driving, New York Post. Pain financial hardship do not have to stem from things that we can control. Although there is a need to have this form of vehicle aid available to drivers, it is the responsibility of the driver to understand and take action against utilizing his phone while driving (Quentin Fottrell, Your actual car is just as distracting as texting and driving, New York Post,.

 

Quentin Fottrell, Your actual car is just as distracting as texting and driving, New York Post, https://nypost.com/2017/10/05/your-actual-car-is-just-as-distracting-as-texting-while-driving/