Sometimes we need to take a step back and see if the direction of innovation is actually doing well!
I often am appreciative of newer and better ways of making things easier for a driver in a car. Auto headlights, wipers, seat ventilation, massage seats, keyless entry, push to talk, and more such innovations are essential nowadays.
But innovation, in my humble opinion, has really taken a drastic turn away, opposite in most cases, of being fool-proof. Now, what do I mean by that?
Take a look at these two innovations of the recent past, for example. Pop out door handles, and bigger and more screens for even basic tasks.
The pop out door handles have recently been banned in China. The reason? Severe safety risks where electrical failures or crashes trapped occupants and delayed rescue.
Apparently, in several high-profile accidents, including incidents involving Tesla and Xiaomi electric vehicles, electronic systems lost power or malfunctioned during a collision, leaving the flush or pop-out handles inoperable and trapping people inside.
Seems pretty apparent, doesn't it? But somehow missed by automakers before they went through with it.
The other one, the screen-everywhere for everything phenom that has taken over both internationally and here in India as well!
The reason for this callout by me? I came across this article by the Swedish magazine Vi Bilägare that ran the test on how distracting it can be to operate a touch screen while driving. The results were quite shocking!
Drivers needed 813 metres on average to complete the tasks such as Turn on the seat heating, raise the temperature by two degrees, turn on the radio, switch channels, and more. What's even more alarmingly shocking is this test was done back in 2022 too and the results then, funnily enough, required less distance to complete the tasks... Sigh!
There's more to it. So, I here's the link to the article so you can take a look at it yourself and get as shocked as me.