Carmakers Seek a Delay on Distraction Guidelines

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is asking U.S. safety officials to rethink proposed guidelines to discourage driver distractions, The Detroit News reports.

The AAM represents the 12 largest carmakers in the American market. It developed its own 90-page set of voluntary guidelines in 2006. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is "very close" to issuing more stringent guidelines that reflect the evolution of gadgets used by drivers.

Several of NHTSA's proposals are already in the AAM's own guidelines. They include one-hand operation of devices, limiting the look-away angle and limiting the need to glance away from the road for more than two seconds at a time.

But the safety agency also wants to limit to 12 seconds the time it takes in total to accomplish a task with a device in the car. The consortium is pushing for 20 seconds, the News says.

Alliance members complain that some of NHTSA's proposals would ban display practices that have been used for 20 years.

Carmakers say the agency's guidelines should encourage development of smart phone apps that function through a vehicle's display system rather on the phone itself.