Dive Brief:
- Smartphones are often reviled as encouraging distracted driving, but they also contain a little-used feature to help prevent this behavior, according to research published today from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
- Most current smartphones include a “do not disturb,” or DND, application that limits certain uses of the device when connected to the vehicle’s Bluetooth signal or when the phone accelerometer detects driving motion. However, the study found that just over one-fifth of Apple’s iOS users engaged this feature and those who did only used it on about 25% of their driving trips.
- After a training period that educated participants on the DND feature, half of whom did not know it existed before, the AAA Foundation study showed a 41% decline in smartphone interactions while driving. As a result, the foundation recommends increasing awareness through targeted public education campaigns and integrating education of DND features into driver training and licensing programs.
Dive Insight:
Distracted driving increased 30% from 2019 to 2024, according to Arity, a mobility data and analytics company. More than a third of U.S. drivers were distracted by their cellphones in the 60 seconds before they crashed, Cambridge Mobile Telematics found in a 2024 report.
“Distracted driving continues to be a major traffic safety concern,” David Yang, president and executive director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, said in a statement. “Despite their potential to reduce distraction, smartphone technology-based countermeasures are not widely used by drivers.”
Drivers aged 18 to 24 were more likely to use their phones while driving even though they were more aware of the DND feature than older drivers, the study found. The researchers selected participants for a 10-week study of their smartphone usage while driving in collaboration with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. For the first five weeks, they drove as they normally would. They were then trained in the use of DND and were monitored for an additional five weeks.
The training was designed to address misconceptions about DND functionality, the AAA Foundation says. While just half of participants knew their phones had a do-not-disturb feature prior to the training and 85% said they did not know how to use it, all said they did post-training.
In response to the study’s findings, AAA said smartphones could improve automatic activation and situational awareness features, remind drivers to use the feature, and work to address “misconceptions” through in-app messaging. The AAA also suggested enlisting influencers to promote the use of DND, especially to younger audiences.
“Increasing the use of Do Not Disturb technology requires more than building awareness. It requires behavior-focused strategies, smarter automation, consistent reinforcement through social norms, and possibly small incentives,” Jake Nelson, director of traffic safety advocacy and research for AAA, said in a statement.
