道路安全--挑剔的司机

Step inside most modern cars and instead of all the dials and switches
坐进大多数现代汽车里,你很可能会发现,
that used to clutter the dashboard you are likely to find it dominated by a touchscreen.
以前挤在仪表盘里的刻度盘和开关现在都是触屏操作。
Often there is more than one screen, and some are bigger than those on a laptop.
车内通常不止一个屏幕,一些甚至比电脑平面还大。


But, though touchscreens provide a convenient way to operate a multitude of controls and settings,
虽然触屏提供了便捷的操控方式,
the latest research shows they can also be dangerous distractions.
但最新研究表明它们也可能是危险的干扰。
To discover how badly touchscreens distract drivers, Neale Kinnear and his colleagues at the Transport Research Laboratory,
为了探究触碰对司机的干扰有多严重,前英国政府机构、现独立检测机构——
a former British-government agency now run as an independent test facility, arranged a series of experiments.
运输研究实验室的Neale Kinnear和他的同事进行了一系列试验。
They recruited two groups of 20 drivers. One consisted of regular users of Google's Android Auto,
他们雇佣了两组司机,每组20人。其中一组是谷歌的Android Auto的老用户,
a popular "infotainment" app which lets drivers interact with their phone through a car's touchscreen.
这是一款很受欢迎的“娱乐信息节目”应用,能够让司机通过汽车的触屏与他们的手机互动。
The others were partisans of Android Auto's main rival, Apple CarPlay.
另一组是Android Auto的主要竞争对手苹果CarPlay的支持者。
Each participant completed three 15 minute journeys along a set virtual route using the laboratory's sophisticated driving simulator.
每位参与者使用实验室先进的驾驶模拟器,沿着设定的虚拟路线完成3次15分钟的旅程。
On one of these trips they had to carry out tasks using only the touchscreen.
在其中一次旅行中,他们只能使用触屏来完成任务。
These tasks included navigating to a restaurant, playing a particular song on Spotify (a music service),
这些任务包括导航区一家餐厅、在音乐软件Spotify上播放某一首歌、
changing radio channels, getting the system to read out a text message, and making a "hands-free" telephone call.
调换广播电台、让系统朗读一条短信,以及打“免提”电话。
On the second trip they had to do the same, but using only the car's voice-activated controls instead. The third journey was a control, with no assigned tasks.
在第二次旅程中,他们需要做同样的任务,但只使用汽车内的声控系统。第三次旅程是一个对照组,不需要做任务。
Whenever a red bar flashed on the windscreen the researchers measured
每当挡风玻璃上的红色条带闪烁时,
how long it took a driver to react by pulling the indicator stalk to flash the car's lights.
研究人员就会通过拉动指示杆来闪动车灯,以此来测量司机的反应时间。
As they expected, drivers using touch controls on the screen took longer to respond to the flashing bar than did those using voice controls.
正如他们所料,与使用声控系统的司机相比,使用触屏操作的司机需要更长的时间来响应闪烁的工具条。
Though the difference might be less than a second, at motorway speeds this would result in an increased stopping distance of up to 25 metres.
虽然差异可能不足一秒,但在高速公路上,这将导致停车距离增加到25米。
Dr Kinnear was, however, surprised by the amount of time drivers' attention was diverted by the series of glances needed to operate the screen.
但Kinnear博士惊讶地发现,驾驶员的注意力被触屏操作所吸引的时间如此之长。
Among the worst outcomes were a mean of 20 seconds of cumulative glances using Android Auto to play a song on Spotify,
最糟糕的结果是,使用Android Auto在Spotify上播放一首歌,平均需要20秒的累积浏览时间,
and of 16 seconds to set up the route to a restaurant with CarPlay.
使用CarPlay设置去餐馆的路线需要16秒。
For voice commands those means fell to four and three seconds respectively.

而语音指令所需时间分别减少至4秒和3秒。
The researchers calculated that reaction times to the red bar
研究人员计算得出,在进行一些任务中,
when the touchscreen was being employed were more than 50% longer than standard for some tasks.
使用触屏时,对红色条的反应时间比标准时间长50%以上。
This was worse than the 46% impairment found in a previous simulator study
这比此前的一次模拟研究还要糟糕,在这项针对边驾驶边打电话
looking at the effects of using a hand-held mobile phone while driving, which is banned in many countries.
(很多国家禁止这种行为)的研究中,46%的司机都受伤了。
Dr Kinnear and his colleagues have urged vehicle-safety bodies to impose standards that limit the use of overly distracting tasks on a car's touchscreen.
Kinnear博士和他的同事敦促汽车安全机构制定标准,限制在车中进行过度干扰的触屏操作任务。
At present there are only voluntary guidelines. America's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for instance,
目前只有四条自愿性的指导规则。例如美国国家公路交通安全管理局表示
says touchscreen tasks should be completed in glances of two seconds or less, with a cumulative time of no more than 12 seconds.
触屏任务应该在两秒钟或更短的时间内完成,累计时间不超过12秒。
The researchers believe voice-activation is a safer alternative that should be encouraged, though the software needs to be improved.
研究人员认为声控是一个更加安全的选择,且应该鼓励声控操作,虽然需要对软件进行改善。
Andy Peart of Artificial Solutions, a Swedish firm developing AI-assisted voice recognition, agrees.
开发AI辅助声音识别的瑞典公司Artificial Solutions的Andy Peart对此表示赞同。
One problem is that spoken commands often have multiple intent.
一个问题是语音命令通常有多个意图。
"Ask to turn the temperature up and play Ed Sheeran, and the system can't cope," he adds.
“调高温度和播放艾德·希兰的音乐,这样的任务,系统无法应对,”他补充道。
The migration of vehicle controls to touchscreens has also led to complaints about the machines' rather than the drivers' reaction times being too slow,
车辆控制系统转移至触屏也引发了人们抱怨机器,而不是抱怨司机的反应速度太慢,
and requiring a confusing number of steps, to boot. In April, after examining the touchscreens in new vehicles, What Car?, a British motoring magazine,
而且启动过程中需要的步骤多得让人摸不清。4月,在检查了新车辆的触屏后,英国汽车杂志《What Car?》报道称,
reported that adjusting the heater fan can take twice as long when using a touchscreen rather than a physical button,
当使用触屏而不是物理按钮时,调整加热器风扇可能需要两倍的时间,
and that selecting a new radio station takes eight times longer.
并且选择一个新的电台需要8倍长的时间。
Carmakers are developing screens that are easier to operate and positioning them more in line with a driver's view of the road.
汽车制造商正在开发更容易操作的的屏幕,并使其更符合驾驶者对道路的看法。
Haptic feedback, which adds physical, tactile responses, is also coming.
增加了物理和触觉反应的触觉反馈也即将到来。
This might, for example, detect a moving finger and produce a clicking sound and a slight vibration when a virtual button on the screen is felt and pressed.
例如,当触摸和按下屏幕上的虚拟按钮时,它可能会检测到一个移动的手指并产生点击声和轻微的振动。
Old-school motorists may, however, still prefer their cars to come with real knobs on.
然而,老派的驾车者可能仍然喜欢他们的车有真正的按钮。

来源:经济学人

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