Texting while driving is extremely dangerous. We get that, at least most of us do anyway. There are ways around it though, like voice dictation, which allows you to talk to your device and keep your hands free. There sure are a lot of other things that can be done on a smartphone while driving, which one could consider to be dangerous, that’s kind of a no-brainer if you ask me.
Regardless of the many hands-free modes available, I still see a fair share of drivers texting the traditional way, even while on the highway. I live in Florida though, where there are lots of tourists, and in general most drivers down here just downright suck (I can just imagine the shitstorm of angry comments I’m going to get for saying that).
Point being, dangerous or not, lots of people still use
their phones while driving. 35% of respondents do it, according to a McKinsey study, released today on “Mobility of the Future.” Personally, I have a feeling the actual number is much bigger, but I haven’t done any studies to prove it, and I don’t feel like donning a lab coat either.
Essentially, the information was collected thanks to an online survey that involved 4,000 U.S. participants. Interestingly enough, of the respondents who said they do use their phone while driving, 89% of them said they use their mobile for regular phone calls. People still talk on the phone these days? Hopefully you can detect the sarcasm there.
68% of respondents said that they use their phone while driving for navigation and GPS support, which in hindsight is not that surprising. What is surprising, however, is that 39% said they use their mobile for SMS or texting while driving, and 31% said they use their phone for internet access.
Some of those folks have to be lying, right? I mean, the whole texting and driving issue sure seems to be distinguished lately, or maybe it’s not as severe as the media makes it out to be.
Try to keep in mind here that I’m not condoning the act. Personally I refuse to even take my phone out of my pocket while I’m driving, and that’s the honest truth.
Also, useful to mobile technology companies, but rather pointless for the rest of us, is this next quaint little statistic. According to McKinsey, 45% of “young people” (age 18 to 39) said they plan to use in-car mobile sharing within the next ten years. Just in case you don’t understand what that means, lots of folks are planning to use their vehicle’s integrated wireless support with their phones.
What do the rest of you think of this survey? Let’s turn this into a community discussion!
Via: AllThingsD