It’s the eve of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Distracted Driving Summit”. Solutions vendors like AT&T, Vlingo and Ford are pre-releasing findings from long-standing research on the impact of cellphone use, especially for texting, on auto accident rates. Proposed solutions range from the Draconian (ban cellphone use in cars) to the more practical, encourage and improve the quality of voice command and control for in-vehicle systems and services.

If you have about 25 minutes, I strongly recommend looking at this video which features two Ford executives explaining the results of long-standing research they’ve conducted using a number of methodologies. Most interesting to me was the use of a multitude of in-car sensors to track driver behavior (like are they “eyes forward” looking at the road ahead) as well as lane changes, braking, collisions, etc. over long periods of time of actual driving. But the stratification of the subject population into a “teen” category to contrast with “adult” behavior in the simulator was also very interesting.

In the first set of results were credited to the Federal Highway Traffic Safety Administrations-sponsored 100-car study conducted by Virginia Tech. While many people cite this research as the basis for imposing a ban on texting. Ford points out that inattention to the road ahead is the factor that correlates most highly with incidents like collisions. As Dr. Louis Tijerina, Ford senior technical specialist, explains in the video, “Research clearly shows that manual operation of those devices that takes the driver’s eyes from the road for extended times creates the kind of distraction that causes accidents.”

The second study was conducted by Ford in its VIRtual Test Track EXperiment (VIRTTEX) device. For this study, Ford stratified the subject base into “teens” and “adults” and found (unsurprisingly) that the teens are bigger risk takers, even when it comes to dialing the cellphone manually. Using sensors to detect eye movement, Ford’s researchers found that adults will parse the task of dialing a ten-digit phone number into distinct actions: first input area code, then look at the road, then input exchange number, then check road and mirrors, then input the last for digits and back to the road. Risk-taking teens just go for the gusto by inputting 10-digit numbers all at once. The riskier behavior would be to input text messages without looking up.

Ford joins the likes of AT&T, Vlingo and a number of other companies with a vested interest in preventing the outright banning of wireless phones in cars. If you watch the video from Ford, you’ll see that the company takes pains to show that neither the frequency or severity of car accidents increased as the proliferation of wireless phones took place in the U.S. While a number of factors need to be taken into account, Ford correctly makes a compelling argument against banning cellphone use in cars.

I can’t predict where the general media may take its coverage of the Distracted Driving Summit tomorrow. Given the state of civil discours these days and the “if it bleeds, it leads” nature of current press coverage, I expect some sensational stuff. You can attend the conference virtually (and form your own opinions) by following this link.

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Tags: speech-enabled mobile services, mobile speech