Drivers bombarded with phone calls, e-mails and other distractions are more likely to make mistakes. That's no big surprise, but it's been confirmed by an ORNL study in which several drivers missed turns, ran stop signs and sometimes crashed while using in-vehicle information systems and devices. Fortunately, no one was injured and no property was damaged because the study was done with a driving simulator. The study consisted of 36 participants who were asked to drive while talking on a cellular phone, using a navigation system, receiving news from the internet and responding to a forward collision warning system. The research is sponsored by the Department of Transportation's Intelligent Vehicle Initiative, part of which is concerned with how drivers function with multiple in-vehicle information tasks. A technical report should be available sometime in the late summer.
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