The legal and technical landscape of distracted driving

Abstract

In the year 2016, distracted driving contributed to 9% of fatal crashes, killing 3,450 people in the United States. While non-technological distractions are a significant concern, this thesis focuses on technological activities that have a unique technology-based risk of distraction as well as present a unique possibility for solutions both through technological safe-guards and legal interventions. The activities of focus in this thesis include talking or texting on a mobile phone (both hand-held and hands-free), using a GPS device (in-vehicle and nomadic), and performing like tasks - including emailing and watching videos on fixed in-vehicle devices. The thesis explores the problem of distracted driving through an expensive literature review of the risks involved. This technical understanding lays a foundation for examining the legal response to technological distractions in the vehicle (both from in-vehicle technology and nomadic devices). The thesis explores the legislative landscape in non-U.S. jurisdictions (for example, the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Canada, France), the legislative landscape in U.S. jurisdictions, and state-imposed product liability and failure to warn in the U.S. It also puts forward the existing and possible educational and technological interventions which can complement legal interventions to effectively promote a change in driver behavior and ultimately safer roads. We conclude that the legal system nationally and internationally is not yet up to the challenge that the emerging technology portends.