Gamification Gets Drivers To Put Down Their Phones, Study Finds (arstechnica.com) 71
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Distracted driving isn't only a result of drivers using their phones when they should be paying attention. But it is a significant cause of the problem, accounting for at least 13 percent of distracted driving deaths and rising to 1 in 5 for young drivers. Now, a study conducted with customers of the Progressive insurance company has tested different strategies to get those drivers to put their phones down in the car, and it found two that significantly reduced handheld use, with the effect persisting after the end of the study. The study recruited 1,653 customers already enrolled in its Progressive Snapshot program, which involves the use of a smartphone app that detects phone use while driving. Before the start of the trial, the participants all averaged more than 6.4 minutes per hour of handheld use while driving -- Progressive says its safest customers have handheld usage of less than 1 minute per hour while driving. [...] Paying drivers on top of competitive gamification was the most effective way to get them to put down their phones. This group reduced its handheld usage by 27.6 percent, or 89 seconds/hour, compared to the control. That reduction was maintained at the same level throughout the post-intervention period for this arm.
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I use my commute as a game. (Score:1)
My commute is 30 miles, mostly highway. Once I'm on the highway I choose a speed and put it into cruise control. The goal is to make it to the exit without ever hitting the accelerator or brakes. Once you do any of that, game over.
I call this new game "Automotive Tetris".
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Other than that, I can't imagine texting in a car, and if there is a phone call, which I generally ignore when driving, it is hands free as that the stereo switches to phone and I can listen and talk while driving...I thought most cars had that capability by now...?
Here's a game I play that lowers my phone use time (Score:5, Insightful)
The game goes like this: I keep my phone down as long as possible, and the more I keep it down, the more I don't die or kill someone.
It's a very rewarding gamified way of driving over time.
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Say there is a game that lets you do anything you want, but it never rewards you, and if you do the wrong thing, the game ends with no recourse. And there's a game which steers you to doing the right thing and rewards you for it. Which game are you going to play? Gamification is powerful, even when it's not used to sell you lots of DLC or grab your attention for an endless stream of ads. I see it as two factions duking it out: One tries to make you addicted to your phone, the other tries to make you put it
Re:Here's a game I play that lowers my phone use t (Score:5, Informative)
It shouldn't be necessary to make not dying a more attractive option.
If you need extra entertainment to choose the path of lower not-dying probability (or worse, not killing someone and spending the rest of your miserable life wracked with guilt), your brain isn't wired up right.
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It shouldn't be necessary to make not dying a more attractive option.
Let's face it: The people are right until it doesn't matter anymore. Survivorship bias is a bitch. You don't hear from the guy where fate struck, you hear from the many more where it didn't, even though they didn't wear a seat belt, didn't get the vaccine, didn't put the phone down, drove drunk, etc. You have the "phone addiction" side working hard to make not putting the phone down an attractive option, so what should or shouldn't be doesn't mean a thing.
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We see this all the time working in medicine. Everyone thinks they're the exception. I tell you that you might have a 1% chance of leaving the ICU alive and yet you and your family want every single thing done...because you're a fighter, you're exceptional, you're the strongest person anyone knows, and you're going to beat this thing.
I tell you that individuals using the phone are 23 times more likely to suffer an accident, but you're convinced that you have the necessary skills and attention to eliminate t
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It shouldn't be necessary to make not dying a more attractive option.
There are lots of problems that "shouldn't be".
Solutions should be based on reality, not wishful thinking.
your brain isn't wired up right.
Our brains are wired up for survival on the African savannah, not for controlling a two-tonne vehicle going way faster than a wildebeest.
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I mean you're saying that humans shouldn't be the way they are, they should be something else instead.
Yeah in many ways humans kinda suck but wishing it away isn't going to do anything about it. We don't have brains optimized for this shit. We are an ape optimized for a hunting and foraging life on the African plains. Turns out our brains could be turned to other tasks and even works domination but we're so so at it.
When calories are free and far between, getting that reward right the hell now is a good su
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What matters isn't what people should be doing, what matters is what we can do to get them to do it. Police officers can't be everywhere all at once, especially when they're being defunded and apps like Waze mark them ten miles in advance. It's a matter of self-interest to get insane idiot drivers to do things they should already be doing.
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Problem is that this reward structure doesn't work at all for people. Humans require a gamified environment where reward is common enough and different enough from status quo to register with our biological reward structures for it to change behavioral patterns. "Not killing someone and not dying" is long term status quo with driving. Therefore you're not offering a reward with that, you're offering status quo. Ergo, reward systems not triggered, and behavior is not changed.
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That only works if you care enough to drive.
The unfortunate truth is, most people on the road are there not because they want to, but because they have to. They want to be anywhere other than behind the wheel. The phone offers a sufficient distraction from the chore of driving that they're willing to do that over driving.
Of course, the main reason is the piss-poor state of public transit in most places which forces driving to be a necessity in order to get around.
The real problem is how to rebuild public tr
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The unfortunate truth is, most people on the road are there not because they want to, but because they have to.
This is not exactly a news bulletin.
If I use my phone while I'm driving, it's not for escapism. It's because I'm getting a phone call, and I forgot to turn on bluetooth so I can't answer it with my car stereo.
The real problem is how to rebuild public transit so those who don't want to drive don't need to
Gotta fight fascism for that, literally.
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You perhaps. Most of everyone else is actively texting/watching videos or playing games on their phone while driving.
And outdated attitudes in thinking drivers paying taxes for public transit doesn't ben
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It's a very rewarding gamified way of driving over time.
I don't think normal people typically get a dopamine hit from not killing someone. I mean you were quipping but you touch on a very real point here: people are horrible at judging risk, and therefor risky activities with incredibly low likelihoods do not generate any kind of response from someone.
I mean I guess if you're Rambo and have an insatiable urge to kill then getting through the day without vehicular manslaughter can trigger the reward center of your brain, but for the rest of us not killing people
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I don't think normal people typically get a dopamine hit from not killing someone
Funny but every evening when I go to bed, I'm grateful to be alive and that nobody suffered today because of something I might have done, and it makes me feel good.
You can get a kick out of mundane everyday nonevents if you have the proper outlook on life. But I will admit, it took me 3 bouts with cancer and limb loss to appreciate life's small pleasures - such as, ya know, being not dead and sharing this state of affairs with my friends and family.
Re: Here's a game I play that lowers my phone use (Score:2)
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Dude. Where are the trophies? The satisfying sound effects? The flashing lights when the engineers want to reinforce a pavlovian effect for behaviour? How to network play with friends?
We need to make driving less boring. That will engage people. How about a "like" button on the steering wheel? Or the ability to broadcast how people feel about the motorway to other drivers?? Oh and add AI!
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The dopamine hit used to be that once in a great while the insurance company would actually reduce your rate. You got a letter in the mail that said something to the effect of "Thank your for continued customer loyalty and in recognition of your infraction free driving recorded we have reduced your annual rate by $57, your new premium will be $NNN.
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The game goes like this: I keep my phone down as long as possible, and the more I keep it down, the more I don't die or kill someone.
It's a very rewarding gamified way of driving over time.
The inputs to your game are only negative, frequently end in a Game Over, and there are no retries. The people who are bad at your game never learn from their mistakes, but they do wipe out your careful players.
The fact is, if there are no consequences until you’re dead, people do a bad job at understanding those sorts of risks. Finding ways to help people make the right decisions is not anyone’s job, other than their own, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, especially when it me
Re: How about I don't give my ins co my details? (Score:1)
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Wild guess: program itself is costly because someone needs to do evaluation based on data. And I imagine these sorts of experts aren't cheap to train and employ.
May get better once AI can do this at scale.
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I went to Progressive because they were by far the cheapest option, without an app. And yes, I have comp+collision on my antique shitbox ('08 Versa) because I commute with it. Now that I am down to 1 day a week in office, I'm not sure what to do about that. I sure wish they had maintained the rail in this area instead of letting it disintegrate.
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The idea of insurance is a service that diffuses risk throughout time and among the masses doing specific activity. The more targeted the risk assessment is to the individual, the less the "masses" affect it.
I.e. your insurance premiums either can target you specifically, or they can't. In latter case, all prices must be jacked up to account for outliers that cannot be individually tracked. In former cases, lower risk individuals can be offered lower insurance rates, while higher risk individuals will actua
Phones have accelerometers (Score:2)
Re: Phones have accelerometers (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Phones have accelerometers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Phones have accelerometers (Score:2)
They would buy such phones if such phones were the only ones allowed to be manufactured. I do not think limiting production like that is a good idea, but if we collectively thought the cost-benefit was worth it, that would be how to get it done.
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- People would go back to buying individual devices - GPSes, MP3 players, etc. - which would have the loophole of "not a phone, but can run phone apps" (as iPods already can).
- Apps that "read" the screen while it's off would come out, people would be even more distracted trying to
Should have global ban on phone+driving (Score:4, Insightful)
In the UK, it's illegal across the entire country to use your phone while driving (have to use a hands-free system for calls). I was shocked to see that there's still something like 22 US states that don't ban the (held) use of a phone while driving! That's insane, because you significantly increase the chances of a crash when using a phone while driving. There shouldn't be a need for "gamification" - phone use while driving should be completely banned in all countries - there's zero justification for it.
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there's zero justification for it
Most people can't behave like proper adults should, hence treating them like kids.
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I was on a full dolmus (public minibus) in Turkey 2 weeks ago, and the guy driving a bus of people took his hands off the wheel while driving to write something in whatsapp. Very reassuring.
Re:Should have global ban on phone+driving (Score:5, Informative)
In the UK, it's illegal across the entire country to use your phone while driving (have to use a hands-free system for calls).
Sorry to disturb your rant about how the British are oh so much smarter than Americans, but "hands-free" phones are no safer than normal phones.
The danger is not taking your hands off the wheel but taking your mind off the road.
Hands-free phones are not safer [sciencedirect.com]
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So, yes, it would be better to make using phones while driving at all illegal. Traffic accidents are still among the leading causes of death in most developed countries (That's why car insurance is compulsory). Driving while impaired &/or distracted are the
Re:Should have global ban on phone+driving (Score:4, Insightful)
Poster did not say hands free were safer, but that there was no excuse for using a phone manually. It's common sense.
Banning the manual use of phones:
1) Does not need new laws, can be banned by strict enforcement of existing Driving Code laws that say drivers must keep their hands on the commands at all times.
2) Easy to enforce by just the police watching, and some places enforce it by the speeding cameras.
Banning of hands-free:
1) Already integrated into cars for a decade or more; a ban would need new legislation, strong political motivation, and will irate many of the voters.
2) Impossible to enforce because phones have voice commands, the police can't see or know if you were talking to the phone few second before they stop you.
3) Impossible to restrict by software because the phone can't know if it is being operated by the driver or a passenger.
That's why hands free phones are more delicate concern, though (as your rightly highlight) dangerous. It does not remove that "there is no excuse" for not banning, immediately, the manual use of phones in moving vehicles.
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In the UK, it's illegal across the entire country to use your phone while driving (have to use a hands-free system for calls).
Sorry to disturb your rant about how the British are oh so much smarter than Americans, but "hands-free" phones are no safer than normal phones.
The danger is not taking your hands off the wheel but taking your mind off the road.
Hands-free phones are not safer [sciencedirect.com]
You'll find that it means fewer people will use their phone for calls and even fewer for texts. This means you have more drivers who might be paying attention to the act of driving. The only time I use my phone whilst driving is as a navigation device, it's in a cradle attached to the vent as not to obstruct my view. Most trips it sits in my pocket, not to be disturbed.
You see the odd driver with 3 odd attachments to their windscreen, right in the middle and you know they're just a crash waiting to happe
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I occasionally also have to change songs, albums or playlists on Spotify to keep the tunes flowing....
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It's important to highlight that by the word "use" is not just for calls. It's in any capacity whatsoever. Technically, you are not allowed to interact with your phone in any way that requires a physical interaction. No checking notifications, no altering navigation. Nothing.
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So...how do you change songs that are playing/streaming through the phone into the stereo?
Re: Should have global ban on phone+driving (Score:2)
You don't. Although some apps react to forward, backwards on modern car steering wheels. Other than that, you're legally not allowed to. Set your playlist in advance.
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Last time I checked ( a long time ago ) driving with a cell phone in use in a car was illegal... then it became legal to use a phone if it was "hands free". Then cell phone mounts for windsheilds and cup holders and dashboards came along and use of Maps/GPS became popular for anyone who drove for a living, taxis (ha ha), Uber, Lyft, delivery drivers, etc. The next thing you know years pass and *everyone* is looking down at their phones at traffic lights. I assume they also use them while
Re: Should have global ban on phone+driving (Score:2)
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Belgium here, illegal, even if you are waiting for a red light. Not sure if Belgians are more disciplined than Americans, but those who are not risk to lose their license for a week and get scolded by a judge.
Just a week? Had no idea the Belgians were such a soft touch.
In the UK it's 6 penalty points and £200, so you can only get caught twice and it's a year off the road. If it were just a week each time I'd imagine more Brits would chance it. Also if you passed your driving test in the previous 2 years you lose it for a year regardless.
In Australia phone use is endemic due to years of lax enforcement and the message just not sinking in. Sadly it's at the point where people honestly believe they're s
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Help me understand: you are not allowed to use the phone for navigation/maps/GPS?
Re: Should have global ban on phone+driving (Score:2)
I hope this system knowns ... (Score:2)
A lot of the time, a passenger (possibly me) is absolutely pestered for "using the phone when driving", when they are searching for something (like a filling station) for their partner who IS driving.
(I do drive - we share driving)
AI has a serious problem with Dunning-Kruger.
I put down my insurance company instead (Score:3)
I made the mistake of getting an insurance policy that required me to install an app on my phone that supposedly monitored my driving habits. Which in reality meant constantly spying on me and using up my battery for the privilege. I just disabled it. Every so often I'd get an email whining that it was inactive so I'd make it active for a short trip and disable it again. Once my year was up I moved to another insurer that wasn't constantly trying to spy on me.
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Good news, if you have a newish car, the spying is built-in!
Even more effective game (Score:2)
Included in all new vehicles, by law. Whaddaya thi
Re: Even more effective game (Score:2)
I think this is an unsolvable problem and the real goal has to be to remove drivers from cars. Anything less is a bandaid that humans will eventually work around.
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How about the phones used by the kids in the back seats, they would trigger an alarm too?
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0 or 1 (Score:2)
I'm a very zero-or-one person. If you drive while using your phone you fully deserve what's coming and the government should do everything in their power (patrols, cameras, face recognition) to detect you using your phone and make you lose your licence. No light touch. You're putting others at risk due to your own recklessness and stupidity. You deserve it.
insurance company spying (Score:2)
You've been gamed alright, you install an Insurance Company app on your device. You think it only tracks you when you're driving? You think they won't use data from that app to set your rates? You gave the insurance company evidence against you.
Better solution (Score:2)
Each time on the same trip the driver looks at their phone, the hit get harder.
How do they determine this? (Score:1)
Obviously, they can't be monitoring "is the screen on" because that'd preclude any use of navigational apps.
So are they going with "is the screen being touched?" Or are they going with "is the phone being held?"
Or are they looking for specific apps / categories of apps being used?
My phone is on a holder/Qi charger from iOttie or some name like that, so it isn't "handheld"
But I'm not going to be typing Shakespeare in text messages while driving.
I would respond ... (Score:2)
Gamification Can Make Driving Worse (Score:2)
another strategy (Score:2)
Another strategy: use your phone, we cancel your insurance.
Funny how people cannot be adults... (Score:2)
... and behave responsibly. No surprise that gamification works on the kids in adult bodies though.