NHTSA Proposes Guidelines to Reduce Driver Distraction

U.S. safety officials are encouraging carmakers to configure in-car controls in such a way that the driver's gaze is averted from the road for no more than two seconds per task.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's voluntary guidelines also suggest disabling video and text displays and the ability to enter text or browse the Internet when a vehicle is in motion.

The NHTSA plan would allow carmakers to break up tasks in unspecified ways into as many as six two-second glances per event.

The agency's suggestions were inspired by its new study of driver behavior, The Impact of Hand-Held and Hands-Free Cell Phone Use on Driving Performance and Safety Critical Event Risk.

The analysis says manipulating a handheld phone or other handheld device triples the driver's chance of crashing. Earlier safety research suggests that the risk rises sharply when drivers take their eyes off the road for more than two seconds. NHTSA's report estimates that drivers who text aren't watching the road for an average 23 seconds per message.

The agency's report also finds no direct increase in crash risk from simply talking on a cell phone.