Telematics digital car

As development of new telematics products and services gains speed, OEMs, suppliers, and other players in the automotive industry are using simulators as a tool to gain greater understanding of driver distraction.

Now that New York has greatly limited the ability of drivers in the Empire State to handle cell phones while driving, the debate about information overload is at full pitch. Whether a plethora of studies on driver distraction now being conducted by various industry players can provide concrete solutions to this seemingly intractable problem is yet to be determined. But as the debate rages and studies abound, engineers are as busy as ever devising new and better telematics applications for in-vehicle use.

Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI), as a telematics technology supplier, has a vested interest in the issue of driver distraction. After having conducted tests using human subjects and a driving simulator, the company is convinced that “it is now possible to perform iterative studies on in-vehicle display and controller designs in an attempt to minimize degradation in driving performance.”