In-car communications too distracting

Professor Thomas Breitling is not a fan of some of the latest in-car communication systems available, such as email, internet or even rear-seat DVD players.

“I'm a fan of not having too much in-car communication distracting drivers,” he says. Breitling says too many communication and navigation systems have the potential to distract drivers, even though his own company, DaimlerChrysler, is at the forefront of offering such systems in its Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler vehicles.

He says discretion and moderation are the keys to their use.

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DaimlerChrysler also measures the effect of what Breitling calls the “human-machine interface” of the newest communication systems. He says Europe and the US are conscious of the impact of these new technologies and are evaluating their relationship with the driver.

Breitling, who was in Australia this month for a road safety conference in Canberra, also says more could be done to vary speed limits in Australia relative to the road conditions.

“They change with the weather or with the traffic flow. Drivers accept the variable limits because they are usually relevant to the conditions. If it is misty you go 80km/h, if it is summer and you have light traffic in the evening you go as fast as you want.”

Variable speed limits are applied to few NSW roads, mainly on motorways.

Germany, which has unrestricted speed limits on most of its freeways, balances this with variable speed limits in keeping with the road conditions. Despite unrestricted speeds, Breitling says the high-speed autobahn network has some of the safest roads and lowest accident rates in Germany.

The unrestricted autobahns are generally wide, open roads with few cross-roads or sharp corners.

“Accidents happen in complex situations, in towns, winding roads in the landscape, where we have crossings etc. There we see road deaths,” he says. “We don't see them much on the autobahns.”

He also says the electronic stability program is the most significant safety feature for new cars.

Breitling says research shows that where ESP is fitted there is a 40 per cent reduction in passenger-car accidents and up to a 70 per cent reduction in crossover wagon and four-wheel-drive crashes.

“If you look at accident-reduction numbers there is a clear safety impact, especially in loss-of-control accidents,” he says. “Loss-of-control accidents are when you lose control and the car starts to spin.

“Usually you hit an object, mainly from the side, and these are dangerous, often fatal accidents.

I don't have the statistics for seat belts or airbags, so I cannot compare, but my personal impression is that driving without ESP is like driving unbelted.”

Australia and the US lag behind the rest of the western world in ESP take-up. We have a take-up rate of only about 30 per cent of all new cars sold.

And he says radar-based assistance systems are the next big thing. “We have brought to the market a radar-based assistance system and we combine it already with the ESP and brake-assist systems,” he says. “We call it brake assist plus.” But how long before it is available in a $15,000 car?

Anti-skid brakes, first introduced in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class in 1978, took about 10 years to filter down to all Mercedes-Benz cars, but Breitling reckons the widespread availability of radar-based braking systems will happen much faster.