The closer cars get to driving themselves, the more distracted we’ll become behind the wheel. It’s hardly a surprising thought, but it’s been supported once again by a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab.
For this experiment, 20 Massachusetts drivers were given one of two cars with differing assisted-driving technologies to use for a month. Ten were provided with a Range Rover Evoque equipped with adaptive cruise control, while the other 10 were supplied with a Volvo S90 outfitted not only with adaptive cruise control but also Volvo’s Pilot Assist system.
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that after the month was over, all participants were more likely to exhibit habits of “disengagement” compared with their driving of a vehicle without assistance technology. Disengagement is what the IIHS calls behaviors like removing both hands from the wheel or diverting attention from the road to use cellphones and adjust vehicle controls
Read the article at Jalopnik.
