Should we rejoice in recent interactive advancements or observe them with caution?
If you follow @MotorMistress on Twitter, you will know that this week we have been debating driving gripes; people have been telling us all about their annoyances when it comes to motoring.
As you can imagine, there were many offending crimes; tail-gating, lack of courtesy and pulling out in front of you were all mentioned. One thing that was also highlighted was the use of mobile phones whilst driving and not, of course, using hands-free.*
While I was driving home last night I saw something similar but actually a little different. I must have noticed at least 5 people not talking on their mobile phones, but scrolling through them. They were checking their Twitter, Facebook, Emails or whatever else - while they were driving.
Then I got to thinking about the whole phone – and MP3 - thing in general.
At the moment, unless you order your new car with a system that integrates your MP3 (or iPhone) so that it can be viewed (and operated) on a big “sat-nav” style screen, you are given a USB so that you can plug it in manually. Your music can then be streamed through to the speakers but you have to operate the device yourself.
Fiddling about with the buttons on a little phone or MP3 is tricky, especially if you are driving in the dark. It also means that in most cases, your phone (or MP3) is on display for you to see and be tempted to check on every time you are in a traffic jam or something.
Does this mean that - for safety reasons - you should order your car with a suitable music interface if you want to listen to music via your own MP3 or Smartphone? Perhaps. But don’t forget that manufacturers are taking the whole in-car technology issue seriously.
They are taking it so seriously, in fact, that the new Jaguar C-X17 SUV (to be launched some time in 2015) is to come with a “Multi–Passenger Interactive Surface Console”. This system features a series of adjoining touch screens that connect the rear passengers with the driver and front seat passenger via Wi-Fi. This is a system that allows the uploading of pictures and encourages interaction with social media networks via “innovative sharing technology”.
The C-X17 is not going to be the only car that will be taking in-car technology a huge step further. It is likely that other manufacturers will follow suit. And I’m not just talking prestige marques; other, less pricey, marques will probably develop versions that will echo the same principal.
Whatever your feelings are about it, it certainly looks as though in-car interactive technology is here to stay. It is likely that some time in the not-too distant future, a car won’t be in the game at all unless is features some sort of interconnecting telephony and internet connectivity system as standard.
Going back to the start, I am questioning if this is a good thing. Yes, all this technology is bringing us into the future – and let’s face it, a lot of us nowadays are very heavily involved with social media and a lot of updates are carried out on our smartphones (myself included).
It is illegal to talk on a mobile phone while driving; we all know that. But it’s not illegal for fiddling about. There are some distractions that you can’t help while you’re driving (like when kids are in the car, for example) but engaging with social media, email and internet activity don’t need to happen in the first place while you’re driving.
It could be that we are on the cusp of almost being too clever for our own good.
*If
you want to read the MotorMistress “Driving Room 101” blog – written for www.simoncarspots.com then click here.
Written by @MotorMistress
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