July 15, 2013
Don’t Use Your Brain to Drive
What if I told you that I drafted this entire blog post during my various commutes around the Jacksonville region? Is it possible to do so safely? I could dictate most of it using the voice-to-text software on my smartphone, and then do all the editing while waiting at red lights. I have enough commute time that I could easily dictate a thousand words in a week, then spend all those red lights finding pictures, adding links, tweaking phrases, and fixing errors where my smartphone typed “dictator” instead of “dictate.” As long as I’m saving that hard stuff for when the car is idling, what’s the harm? Isn’t that a more efficient use of my time?
Despite clear science that says multitasking leads to poor driving, the issue continues to grow as technology like this has found its way into the hands of millions. Let’s face it, we want to get more done in less time. Without excusing irresponsible behavior, I’d like to argue that the solution is to give people what they want: we should spend our commutes doing anything but driving the car.
Of course, the technology that would allow us to do so safely isn’t here yet. People are working on it. But I fear far too many in the world don’t see that self-driving cars aren’t just about getting more time to check email or take a nap. Removing the human from the driver’s seat is the only sure way to save countless lives.
As someone who studies the brain and cognition, I’d feel so much safer on the road if the other cars were guided by something other than human brains. Brains develop sloppy habits like walking into the kitchen and staring into the fridge. Brains are terribly limited in the data they can collect. Brains get emotionally compromised. Brains have a bottleneck in the frontal lobes that makes it hard for them to process multiple streams of information.
To make matters works, brains have the perfect defense against “more education” and “harsher laws” and all the other solutions people have proposed: until an accident happens, brains tend to believe that practice means improvement. The person who is dangerous behind the wheel is the person who is getting better at driving distracted, because they will do it again. After all, if texting while driving caused an accident every time you did it, a few people would learn that lesson the hard way, and the problem would be solved.
On the other hand, brains are very good at the stuff that we are currently calling distractions. Talking on the phone, sending texts, surfing the web, even writing blog posts with pictures and links–among all the tools we have, this is what brains are best suited for doing. So why are we still driving a car? That’s a menial task of the worst kind, and a monumental waste of our grey matter.
Let’s be clear, I am neither endorsing nor excusing distracted driving. I’m simply suggesting that the human brain’s concept of efficiency is to use all the tools and resources at hand on every problem, and any attempt to fight that efficiency is a losing battle. Nor am I admitting that I actually did write this blog post while driving. To me the problem is not that I would do so, but that I could do so. The former problem is one of irresponsibility within me as an individual. The latter problem is part of our modern world, and it does not go away when and if I exercise self-control.
Now if you’ll excuse me, this light just turned green.
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