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Transportation Department Recommends Curbs on In-Car Electronics

Author:xiaoyuer Date:2010-11-1 20:25:36

Concerned that ready access to Web browsers, navigation interfaces and social media functions in passenger cars may compromise the attention of drivers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called on automakers Thursday to engineer safeguards into their telematics and infotainment systems that would limit access to these features when a car was in motion.

Transportation Secretary LaHood, at the Washington auto show in January.Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesTransportation Secretary LaHood, at the Washington auto show in January.

The recommendation was made in Washington by Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary. N.H.T.S.A. issued a 177-page set of guidelines (PDF) that was published Thursday in the Federal Register. The guidelines “would offer real-world guidance to automakers to help them develop electronic devices that provide features consumers want — without disrupting a driver’s attention or sacrificing safety,” David Strickland, the administrator of N.H.T.S.A., said.

N.H.T.S.A.’s recommendation constituted the first phase in its approach to curbing the use of nonessential electronics in a moving car. Even so, the safety agency has no direct authority to compel automakers to adopt its recommendations, and describes the guidelines as voluntary.

N.H.T.S.A. primarily took aim at electronic functions that compel a driver to look away from the road for more than two seconds, like Web searches, social networking, texting and navigation features that required the input of addresses. The agency also explicitly recommended that these functions be inaccessible to front-seat passengers “whenever the vehicle’s engine is on and its transmission is not in ‘Park.’”

Thursday’s announcement followed an earlier recommendation to ban the use of cellphones and hands-free electronic devices, issued in December by the National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency responsible for promoting traffic safety and investigating accidents. Until Thursday, the N.T.S.B. proposal was the strongest repudiation issued by a federal agency of consumer technology’s creep into passenger cars.

A subsequent round of recommendations from N.H.T.S.A., to be issued at a later date, would create guidelines for peripheral devices, including handsets and headsets. A third phase would address voice-activated controls to encourage further ease of use and minimize the potential for driver distraction.

The recommendations released Thursday are subject to a 60-day public commenting period, after which N.H.T.S.A. would issue its final set of guidelines. Public hearings on the proposal are scheduled to take place in March in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, the dates of which will be announced in a separate Federal Register notice.

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