John Price Law Blog

5 Tech Innovations For A Safer Commute

Note: This was featured as part of our Wednesday segment on Charleston’s 105.5 The Bridge with Box in the Morning. You can catch us every other Wednesday morning at 8:50 am ET for the latest law tips and legal news. You can listen to the segment below:

As more and more people drive into the city from the suburbs for work, commutes have stretched to an average length of 30 minutes. This trend is projected to rise, along with a potential for increased accidents. Although traffic is getting worse, technological innovations are helping us drive more safely. Every year in America, $160 billion worth of gas is wasted per year sitting in traffic while 6.9 billion hours is collectively spent sitting in traffic. This enormous misuse of resources can hopefully be alleviated by improved technology. Vehicle-to-vehicle communication, driving apps, advanced safety features, and phone settings can all help make your commute safer.

If your car could talk, what would it say? Although cars of the future won’t be speaking English, they will be able to communicate with each other information about speed and traffic. Cars equipped with V2V technology can alert other cars about your speed and warn you if you are getting too close to another vehicle. When driving in heavy traffic that can come to a screeching halt at any moment, V2V tech can keep you from rear-ending someone. Adaptive cruise control allows your vehicle to follow the traffic patterns of other cars and speed up or slow down accordingly.

Popular apps such as Waze and Google Maps can update you in real-time about traffic conditions. Waze will warn you of dangerous weather conditions, hazards on the road, and vehicles stopped on a shoulder ahead. Before you leave your house in the morning and before driving back from work, check traffic updates to decide if you should take a different route. If a traffic jam is completely unavoidable, try listening to podcasts, music, and the radio to alleviate stress and to keep you from succumbing to road rage.

All new cars drive off of the lot equipped with backup cameras, lane assist sensors, voice controls, and a button to call 911. These safety measures are intended to help prevent accidents and to call for help if you are the victim of a crash or a crime. Touchscreens and voice controls can help minimize driver distractions and keep your eyes on the road instead of on your dashboard. If you are looking to purchase a new car, make sure it is also equipped with side driver and passenger airbags, which can be lifesaving if your car is struck from the side.

To help prevent distractions, newly updated iPhones will ask you to verify that you are a passenger. You can also opt to turn on Do Not Disturb which mutes incoming notifications when your phone senses you are driving. You can also set up automated messages to let friends, coworkers, and family know that you are temporarily unavailable. This is especially helpful for long road trips when an acquaintance may be concerned if they haven’t heard back from you for several hours. This essential feature keeps pop-up notifications, ringing, and buzzing from distracting you while driving.

Cutting-edge technology only enhances driver awareness, but it is not a substitute for paying attention to the road. Always be aware of your car’s blind spots and never drive when inebriated or tired. Safety features can help you pay attention to your surroundings, but you still need to turn your head, look around and stay focused. Keep in mind that not all cars in the road will have the latest tech gadgets, so you still need to drive safely and never assume that other drivers can see you. Although many drivers are confident in their ability to multi-task, no text message is worth having an accident for.

The legal team at John Price Law Firm offers experienced, compassionate representation to victims of car accidents, on-the-job injuries, medical negligence. If you or a loved one has sustained injuries from a vehicular collision, reach out to us on our website or at (843) 552-6011. Let us fight for you.

Additional Resources:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/time-americans-waste-traffic/story?id=33313765