Transport Canada to determine if new in-car devices affect safety

Transport Canada is examining the effect new in-car devices such as personal computers (PCs) and navigation tools have on driving. Unlike cell phones, these devices are factory installed and therefore come under Transport Canada jurisdiction through its safety-standards mandate.

Onboard intelligent transport systems (ITS), including PCs (phone and email), collision warning and driver navigation assistance devices, are starting to appear in vehicles. But do they affect driver performance? Studies involving in-car cell-phone use support both sides of the argument, but Transport Canada hopes to settle the ITS debate by using innovative eye-tracking technology that quantifies how drivers allocate their attention. Ian Noye, head of the Ergonomics Division (road safety and motor vehicle regulation), expects results of the study to be available late in 2000.

With eye-tracking technology, subjects wear a headset that tracks pupil movement and also contains a camera to record the view. The 2 sets of results are later matched so that researchers can assess where drivers are looking at a given time.

The system's manufacturer, EL-MAR Inc. of Downsview, Ont., presented results of its pilot study when the Association of Canadian Ergonomists met last fall. They found that drivers using a cell phone spend 72% of their time looking at a tiny area quite low on the horizon. Those who weren't using the phone scanned the environment appropriately.

Noye says that using hand-held cell phones while driving is against the law in many countries, including Australia, Israel and Spain; the UK is considering a similar ban. In Canada, where in-car cell phones are a provincial responsibility, similar laws don't exist yet.