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| Can iDrive Safely, or Just Drive You Crazy? |
July 12, 2005 |
By Michael Bettencourt
Confusing and possibly dangerous luxury-car gadgetry coming to streets — and collision scenes — near you.
No one died that night, or even got hurt, but I know that’s only because we were very lucky.
Cresting a gentle highway uphill curve at night, behind the wheel of a supreme Audi A8L, I found myself twisting its mouse-like controller to avoid the audio purgatory of radio commercials, watching the display set between the main gauges as I cruised up and down a list of station presets.
Highway rumble strips interrupted what I thought was a split-second glance down, a glance that was long enough not to see a car stranded on the shoulder of the lane I was unexpectedly leaving. I managed to dart back into my lane in time to miss the other car’s bumper, but just barely.
You’ve heard the hype about the danger of cellphone use behind the wheel, prompting a myriad offshoot technologies and peripherals to make the phones easier and arguably safer to use. But cellphone controls seem like child’s play next to the advanced yet complex capabilities — and some say potentially dangerous distractions — high-end car buyers are starting to see in the form of in-car computer mouse-like devices. These control everything from the stereo, phone, navigation, telematics, DVD and even climate control systems.
This has caused much grumbling from owners and critics, who say the systems are more confusing than helpful, and even worse, unsafe. That’s because they involve watching a screen while scrolling through menu after menu for sometimes even basic climate control and stereo functions. The actual numbers of vehicles equipped with such systems are relatively few now, as cars offering these are mostly in the $70,000-plus range. But the advanced technology is marching its way down-market, with BMW and Audi offering the technology on sub-$40,000 cars this spring. These systems have already reached lower-priced, volume-selling models in Europe, and are likely to do the same here in the next year or two, prompting the question: How much technology is too much technology behind the wheel?
iDrive criticized
BMW has been the target of much of the criticism of this technology, as it was the first manufacturer to unveil it with the much-maligned iDrive system, and has been the quickest to spread it across its auto lineup. Because of that, where BMW once trumpeted its use, as it did on the 7 Series debut in 2001, iDrive’s availability on the new 3 Series is buried deep in most dealer literature, if mentioned at all.
“BMW’s Byzantine, frustrating iDrive multimedia interface has been the butt of joke after joke in the automotive press,” said a recent car review by Dan Lienert on http://www.forbes.com, in a road test of the latest Audi A6. Its interface, dubbed MMI, is similar to the iDrive. “OK, so MMI is less complicated than iDrive — but only marginally so.”
USA Today in April chimed in with a similar opinion.
“Audi’s version of the what-were-they-smoking control absurdity pioneered by BMW’s iDrive, MMI, has its own, 255-page how-to manual...The logic that hides almost any function beneath layers of choices is flawed logic...MMI-type experiences are another signal that German brands should be placed on suicide watch.” Rarely do North American auto journalists get so heated about any topic, never mind one as seemingly mundane as interior user-friendliness.
Yet even for true technophiles, if you ever buy a car with such a system, frustration arrives long before familiarity.
Confusing complexity
Each system has its own degree of difficulty, thanks to both hardware and software differences, but work in much the same way.
A metallic knob acts as a mouse that sometimes provides tactile feedback, controlling up to 750 different functions. This knob can be pushed, spun left or right, or toggled in various directions.
Manufacturers insist it’s the only futuristically elegant way to add all the features luxury buyers crave without making the interior resemble an airplane cockpit. What they don’t say, but which seems evident after driving many such systems, is that the companies also save a fair amount of money in tooling and hardware costs with these systems. The better ones, such as that in the Acura RL, have separate controls for the most often used stereo and climate adjustments, but many unfortunately don’t.
The problem is, not only is it tricky to learn which inputs control which functions, it requires watching a screen while scrolling, toggling or pressing the controller to navigate through menu after menu for even basic functions, such as flipping from AM to FM stations. So while the majority of luxury manufacturers had already offered distraction-lessening items like automatic climate control, voice recognition systems, stereo and cruise buttons on the steering wheel, and navigation systems that automatically “lock out” any attempted driver input while underway, these multimedia interfaces take a giant leap back by removing a hand from the wheel and eyes from the road.
Driven to distraction
The issue of driver distraction behind the wheel is not a new one, but became prominent recently with the explosive rise in cellphone use behind the wheel over the past few years. In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates one in four collisions involve some type of driver distraction, whether from a phone, talking passenger, dropped cigarette, high-tech multimedia device, or groin-grilling hot coffee, to name but a few.
However, of these distractions, only one, original equipment telematics devices, including phones, are set to increase exponentially in the next few years, or are regulated by the federal government.
Most driver distraction studies recently have focused on cellphones and whether or not they increase a driver’s propensity to crash. A 2002 Transport Canada study found that even while using cellphones in hands-free mode, distraction rates increased in proportion to the amount of cognitive reasoning, or brain muscle, involved.
“As the use of in-vehicle technologies becomes more popular, there is concern about a concomitant increase in driver distraction arising from their use.” That study called for public education and further study, while raising the specter of legislating what car companies could and could not offer as original equipment.
In April 2003, Canada’s motor vehicle standards regulator looked into the distraction issue in regards to more advanced — and more complex — telematics systems such as iDrive, and issued an even sterner warning. “The Department’s concern over distraction from in-vehicle telematics devices is based on a substantial and mounting body of research indicating that the use of these devices impairs driving performance...The status quo may not be a viable option given that the current situation with telematics devices is unsatisfactory and that there are few indications that this situation would improve without some intervention,” read the paper’s conclusion.
Dr. Doug Beirness is vice-president of research of the Ottawabased Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) and lead author of the Road Safety Monitor, which produced a special report on driver distraction in April of 2003. He said it’s difficult to reach any scientific conclusions about the dangers of telematics systems yet.
“We certainly have some evidence that many of these systems have the potential to be distracting,” Beirness said. “If you’re looking at something else (besides the road), there are obviously dangers there.”
Yet because the systems are so new, there are many holes in their research, Beirness said. “There’s a lot of potential there for distraction, and I don’t think we’ve gone much beyond that.” He also points to a study that concludes many of these systems become less distracting with practice, a view supported by owners of iDrive-equipped vehicles in message forums all over the Internet.
Still, the end of the cellphone’s reign as the lightning rod of public and political pressure in regards to driver distraction may be on the horizon. We may look back at our fear of cellphones behind the wheel as a quaint foreshadowing to the truly interconnected universe we will soon find ourselves in when e-mail, Internet access, satellite radio and navigation signals link wirelessly with computers in our pockets, briefcases, offices and homes.
Perhaps then, we’ll be able to look back at where the road to the future became an interstate with unlimited entry and exit points, at a time when getting lost on the info highway will be more likely than on the physical one. Whether multimedia devices in vehicles cause collisions or not, their growth will mean they will no doubt be appearing soon at a crash scene near, or involving, you. Perhaps then, it’ll be too late to see what dangers they hold for the future.
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