Driven to Distraction -- and Then Off the Road

Scott LaFee
Tue, 24 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0800
Lifestyle

Once, when automobile dashboards were festooned with knobs and dials, it was relatively easy and safe to "feel" your way to the right control without taking your eyes off the road. Dashboard touch screens have changed that — and it's not a pretty picture.

In a study using vehicle simulators, participant "drivers" were tasked with navigating streets while interacting with a touch screen and completing memory tests that mimic the mental effort demanded by traffic conditions and other distractions.

Researchers found that when people multitasked, their driving and touch screen use both suffered. Cars drifted more in the lane when people used touch screens, and speed and accuracy of screen use declined when driving. Everything got worse when a memory task was added.
Updated: Wed Feb 25, 2026

Once, when automobile dashboards were festooned with knobs and dials, it was relatively easy and safe to "feel" your way to the right control without taking your eyes off the road. Dashboard touch screens have changed that — and it's not a pretty picture.

In a study using vehicle simulators, participant "drivers" were tasked with navigating streets while interacting with a touch screen and completing memory tests that mimic the mental effort demanded by traffic conditions and other distractions.

Researchers found that when people multitasked, their driving and touch screen use both suffered. Cars drifted more in the lane when people used touch screens, and speed and accuracy of screen use declined when driving. Everything got worse when a memory task was added.

Increasing the size of the target areas on touch screens did not improve performance.

"If people struggle with accuracy on a screen, usually you want to make bigger buttons," said study author Xiyuan Alan Shen at the University of Washington. "But in this case, since people move their hand to the screen before touching, the thing that takes time is the visual search."

The researchers suggested that future in-car touch screen systems might use simple sensors in the car, such as eye tracking or touch sensors on the steering wheel, to monitor drivers' attention and cognitive load. Based on these readings, the car's system might adjust the touch screen's interface to make important controls more prominent and safer to access.

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