Cars with touchscreen controls are potentially more dangerous and fleets should consider removing from their choice lists on safety grounds, FleetCheck is warning.
Touchscreen only systems have become more popular in recent years, particularly on BEV models, and this is distracting to drivers.
The subject has been in the news this week with iPhone designer Jony Ive – who has created the interior of the new Ferrari electric vehicle – saying touchscreens are the wrong interface for cars because they mean drivers must take their eyes off the road.
Peter Golding, CEO at the fleet software company, said, “There is now overwhelming evidence that touchscreen controls represent a serious risk, with a whole slew of credible studies showing they are distracting for drivers and interrupt concentration to an unacceptable degree.
“We’re probably already seeing a general move by manufacturers away from placing everything on touchscreens towards a more hybrid approach where at least major controls such as heating have physical knobs and buttons, something being encouraged by Euro NCAP, among others.
“However, there remain some popular company cars commonly included on choice lists that are touchscreen-only and it is probably time for fleets to consider whether this is the right thing to do? These vehicles are inherently risky and there are plenty of alternatives that provide safer access to vehicle controls.”
Peter said there was a widespread perception that voice control options offered by touchscreen-heavy cars provided an added layer of safety, but this was not necessarily true.
“Several studies show voice control is probably less dangerous than touchscreen use but is still highly mentally distracting for the driver. Anyway, it often serves as a general annoyance simply because many systems don’t work that well.”
There was a possibility, he added, that drivers had too quickly been moved into quite alien car environments that relegated too many functions to touchscreens while, at the same time, introducing a whole range of advanced driver assistance systems.
“There’s no evidence of which we are aware that ADAS is making vehicles less safe – quite the opposite – but a situation has been created almost inadvertently where many drivers now spend a lot of time jabbing at touchscreens to turn off speed or lane departure warnings.
“The car has potentially become quite stressful by design, which is clearly not desirable. It does perhaps feel as though we need to spend more time considering the human element.”
