On Wednesday, July 15th, a road safety survey released by Economist Enterprise, a subsidiary of The Economist, has shown that the distraction of drivers by in-car functionalities, as well as misunderstandings or misuse of driving assistance systems, pose far greater road safety risks than mechanical failures of vehicles.
The report titled “Safety in Motion: Driving Trust in Modern Mobility” by Economist Enterprise covers ten major car-producing countries including France, Germany, Italy, UK, China, India, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and the US. It surveyed over 1,000 experts in transportation policy, infrastructure, manufacturing, and technology fields, along with more than 5,000 road users.
According to the findings, only 3% of industry experts believe mechanical issues in vehicles are the main cause of accidents, while 30% of interviewed transportation experts identify driver misunderstandings or misuse of driving assistance systems as the primary reason for safety issues during travel.
Another question raised regarding the safety risks of “user-vehicle interaction” revealed that 24% of respondents pointed out that in-car functionalities are increasingly distracting drivers’ attention. 88% of participants expressed support for stricter road safety measures and regulations, such as lowering speed limits and enhancing enforcement, and are willing to pay more for a safer travel system.
Pratima Singh, the head of corporate research at The Economist, emphasized that the real risk lies in the interaction between humans and machines, as well as the increasingly automated systems. She noted that many professionals believe that advertising exaggerates the functionalities of these systems, leading to unrealistic consumer expectations.
Ignacio Alvarez, the research director at Italian brake manufacturer Brembo, stated the importance of clearly informing end customers about what driving assistance systems can and cannot do.
The research report also highlighted a significant gap between public confidence in driving safety and expert assessments. While up to 90% of drivers believe their daily driving is safe, only 45% of transportation professionals have equal confidence in the current road safety standards.
This disparity is most prominent in emerging car markets such as Brazil, China, and India. While as high as 94% of drivers in these regions consider their driving safe, only 18% of experts are confident in the current safety standards. Moreover, the actual average road death rates in these countries are twice the average of all surveyed nations.
United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt, warned during a briefing on July 8th that overconfidence can lead drivers to relax vigilance at the wheel and take unnecessary risks.
Apart from the issues with misuse of driving assistance systems, systems like Ford’s BlueCruise and Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) have also garnered significant attention in recent years. Tesla’s FSD is currently seeking approval for deployment across Europe, raising concerns about its safety.
A letter obtained by Reuters revealed that the Swedish Transport Administration has recommended the EU Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles to vote against the widespread deployment of Tesla’s FSD in Europe unless Tesla disables its speeding feature systematically.
The letter highlighted that allowing automated systems to systematically exceed legal speed limits could undermine existing regulatory frameworks and diminish the safety benefits that vehicle automation should bring. Concerns have also been raised by countries like Finland and Norway in the Nordic region.
Additionally, the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29), a subsidiary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), approved the first legal framework for Automated Driving Systems (ADS) on June 24th, recognizing the legal status of fully autonomous vehicles.
This framework mandates manufacturers to establish safety management systems, undergo credible testing and verification of safety cases, continuously monitor and report on vehicles equipped with ADS, and concurrently revise around 90 existing vehicle regulations. The framework is expected to come into effect officially in late July this year.
Major automobile markets including the US, China, EU, Japan, Canada, and the UK have shown support, accelerating the deployment of this framework in global markets.
Alongside the controversy surrounding autonomous driving systems, the distraction issues brought by the replacement of physical buttons with touchscreen interfaces in vehicles have also drawn significant attention.
Another study indicated that replacing physical buttons with touchscreen interfaces in cars makes drivers more distracted and increases driving risks. This is because the response time of drivers when operating touchscreen interfaces increases by over 50% on average, compared to only 35% and 46% increases when sending texts or making calls on mobile phones, respectively.
Road safety experts point out that driver distraction can be visual, manual, or cognitive, and operating touchscreen interfaces often involves all three distractions simultaneously. Drivers typically need to focus their eyes on the screen to navigate menus, reach out to tap the correct options, and think about the logic of operation and how to navigate to the correct address.
Studies have also found that physical buttons are simpler to operate and much less disruptive, allowing drivers to carry out blind operations through “muscle memory,” thus enabling them to stay attentive to the road ahead even when adjusting with one hand off the steering wheel without prolonged distractions.
Dr. Milad Haghani, a safety expert at the University of Melbourne, previously told the Daily Mail that while touchscreen interfaces are beneficial for functions like navigation, essential functions such as air conditioning and volume controls that are frequently used must retain physical buttons to ensure drivers have enough focus on the road.
Currently, some experts are advocating for a return to traditional dashboards with physical buttons. The Australian and New Zealand vehicle safety assessment program (ANCAP) announced that from 2026 onwards, car manufacturers will be required to “bring back physical buttons” to prevent drivers from overly focusing on screens and to encourage them to keep their attention on the road.