IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2015 - 97
describing the potential driver distraction of these thirdwave forms of in-cab connectivity.
How Wearable Tech and Smartphone-Style
Interfaces Can Be Distracting
The brain-centered account can be used to conceptualize the ways that the functionalities added to the
in-cab experience by these devices may place additional cognitive demands on the driver. Advanced
mobile computing - from smartphones, to dashboardintegrated systems-enable access to any number of
applications. The use of any one of these applications
can be conceived as a "task," and one associated with
its own particular quantity of cognitive demand. And
if a person engages in the task of using a smart computing application while also engaging in the task of
driving, then we should keep careful watch over the
combined cognitive workload placed on the driver's
brain by such a dual-task scenario. The level of distraction will depend on the particular quantity of cognitive
resources exhausted by the particular application. In
this way, the explanation of third-wave in-cab connectivity provided by the brain-centered account will be
ultimately the same as its explanation for the distraction of first and second-wave devices. That is, according to the brain-centered account, cutting-edge in-cab
connectivity devices such as wearable computing and
smartphone-style dashboard interface could be distracting to drivers for the way they consume a driver's
inherently limited cognitive resources.
The habit-centered account identifies a special
source of distraction that could emerge from thirdwave in-cab connectivity technologies. There is a
striking moment in Cecelia Abadie's interview here in
IEEE Technology & Society Magazine where she talks
about the daily experience of using Google Glass at
home and at work:
At the beginning I remember my husband asking me "You're already wearing that thing?" And at
night like "you're still wearing that thing?" But
everybody just got used to it, and my co-workers at
the beginning we were in a meeting and they were
like "ah"... you know, they were a little bit suspicious or felt weird but everybody got very used to
it and what happened actually is that when they
saw me without it they were like, "What happened?
You're missing your Glass," so it became like an
extension of me and some people took it that way
[43, p. 20].
This comment highlights an important aspect of
mobile computing generally, namely, its capacity to become a part of the user, that is, its capacity to
December 2015
∕
become integrated into a person's everyday experience.
My argument is that it is exactly this capacity of mobile
and wearable computing that introduces a special form
of driver distraction. In the cases of wearable computing like smartwatches and heads-up displays, and in the
cases of smartphone-style dashboard interface, these
cutting-edge forms of in-cab connectivity have a distinctive potential to drag the habits of our everyday experience into the driving context.
Smartphone-Style Dashboard Interface
In the case of systems such as Apple's Carplay and
Google's Android Auto, aspects of the interface scheme
common to popular smartphone computing devices are
replicated on the car's dashboard. Since the car and the
smartphone no longer have entirely separate interface
formats, users should have an easier transition between
the phone and the car.
Recall that the habit-centered account points out
that the source of cell-phone-induced driver distraction
may be the way that phone usage calls forth a particular experiential organization, one in which the driver's
overall awareness is occupied by the communication.
By making the in-cab smart computing experience one
step more similar to everyday non-driving mobile computing and communication, it makes it that much more
natural and easy to inadvertently carry over the habits
of "normal" computing and communication into the particular context of driving. That is, the concern that I am
trying to articulate here is that smartphone-style dashboard interface systems like Android Auto and Carplay
could have a special capacity to encourage distracted
driving by inclining drivers to at times fall into a habit
of using computing and communication in the way they
normally do outside the car (in which experience is primarily occupied by the conversation), rather than in the
way required for driving in which primary focus must
always remain on the road.
Wearable Computing
A similar set of concerns can be raised for the issue
of wearable computing and driving. Part of the whole
idea of wearable devices is that their functions can be
accessed readily, if not almost seamlessly, throughout
the day. For example, a central appeal of smartwatches is that they make smart computing applications
available without requiring the extra step of drawing one's smartphone out of one's pocket. A central
appeal of heads-up display computing is that the
device can be ready at all times, proving a feed of
information even as the user looks out at her or his
environment, and enabling ready-to-go computermediated interactions with that environment, such as
pictures taken via voice command at what the user
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
97
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