Tests of infotainment systems in the latest cars from 20 different manufacturers have revealed which of the devices are most and least distracting.
Around one in seven accidents on the road are caused by motorists being distracted and a quarter of all deaths are due to drivers not being focused on the road, according to the latest road casualty data from the Government.
The infotainment system and dashboard layout of new MG cars were found to be the most fiddly and distracting to use, while BMW’s iDrive was named as the easiest in the market-wide test by What Car?.
Driving you to distraction: New tests by What Car? has identified why vehicle brands have the easiest – and most difficult – infotainment systems to use on the move
The in-car systems of 20 mainstream and popular vehicle makers were tested.
The motoring consumer title said these encompass the majority of the different types of infotainment systems and dashboard layouts on offer in the latest new cars in showrooms currently.
Testers performed six different tasks that drivers frequently do while on the move, including changing the temperature, zooming out on a sat-nav route and changing from one radio station to another.
Each action was timed to understand how taxing the task was and how long a motorist who be diverting their attention away from the road and their surroundings.
The systems that took longest to operate were deemed the worst, as every second spent looking away can be dangerous, as a vehicle moving at 30mph will travel 13.5 metres every second.
The latest road casualty statistics from the Department for Transport for crashes in the UK in 2018 show that distracted driving accounts for 15 per cent of all accidents.
This is higher than in previous years – 13 per cent in 2016 and 14 per cent in 2017 – and is partly caused by more drivers using vehicles with complex touchscreen systems rather than older cars with an increased number of single function buttons.
In fatal collisions in 2018, distracted driving was a contributory factor in 25 per cent of incidents.
This is the touchscreen system tested in the MG model used for the investigations
The car tested was the MG ZS – a budget-friendly SUV found to have a slow operating infotainment screen
The research demonstrates that systems with physical buttons are much less distracting to use on the move than those that can only be altered using a touchscreen.
It took twice as long to adjust heating controls on some cars with touchscreen controls rather than physical dials.
And it took up to four times longer to zoom out of the sat-nav map to view a pre-programmed route using a touchscreen than it did using a rotary dial controller.
The easiest systems for adjusting the sat-nav map were Audi’s Virtual Cockpit Plus and BMW’s iDrive, while the most fiddly was the Lexus 12.3-inch multimedia display.
The tests also highlighted the benefits of having a range of different ways of doing a task, so the driver can choose the most convenient for each situation.
The best systems let you use physical buttons, the touchscreen or voice control to do a wide range of commands.
Using a sophisticated voice control system is the least distracting way of doing many tasks.
The systems in the Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz all recognise natural speech, so you can activate them by talking and then ask them to carry out your desired task and hardly take your eyes off the road at all.
The best system was the one used in BMW cars, such as the premium 3 Series model (pictured)
A total of 20 cars from 19 different brands (two Skodas tested) were used for the assessment
One of the six tasks drivers had to attempt to do on the move was to zoom in on the view of a route set in the sat-nav system
However, not all voice control systems are as intuitive or fast to respond; What Car?’s testers were looking away from the road for more than twice as long in cars with the worst systems.
The MG tested, which scored the lowest rating overall, didn’t have a voice recognition system at all – but drivers could still activate a smartphone system via a steering wheel button.
It scored poor ratings for the pinch-and-zoom function on the sat-nav map, with the testers saying the system was slow to respond, and flicking form one radio station to the next was also found to be particularly time-consuming.
This is Money has contacted MG for a response to the research,
While the report included manufacturers of the most popular motors in the UK, it is important to note that their model ranges are available with varying infotainment systems.
This was highlighted by the inclusion of two Skoda model in the assessment, with the Kamiq SUV having the latest in-built device from the VW Group while the budget-friendly CitiGo comes only with a basic plug-in device.
Steve Huntingford, editor of What Car?, said: ‘Distracted drivers are a factor in a growing number of road accidents, so it’s important to choose a car with controls that are responsive and easy to use while you drive.
‘The best systems provide physical buttons and voice control, while those that are most distracting have sluggish touchscreens and require too many steps to carry out commands.
Earlier this month, IAM Roadsmart and TRL released a study aimed to evaluate the impact of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay systems on driver distraction.
Both voice and touch operation of the operating systems were found to distract drivers – though touch control proved the more distracting of the two, which is consistent with What Car?’s results.
IAM Roadsmart said the distracting affect of using the touch functions for the software is even worse than when texting while driving, with users taking their eyes off the road for up to 16 seconds at a time to perform basic adjustments to the music and infotainment options.
It also measured reaction times of drivers at motorway speeds while using the systems, finding they increased average stopping distances to between four and five car lengths.
Neil Greig, IAM RoadSmart’s policy and research director, said: ‘While previous research indicates that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto perform better than more traditional buttons and controls, the results from this latest study raise some serious concerns about the development and use of the latest in-vehicle infotainment systems.’
‘Anything that distracts a driver’s eyes or mind from the road is bad news for road safety. We’re now calling on industry and government to openly test and approve such systems and develop consistent standards that genuinely help minimise driver distraction.’
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