For years ...

For years, yours truly has ranted about the inherent dangers of displays in cars in terms of distraction, bad interface and just downright stupid in compromising the potentially deadly art of driving, something beautifully depicted by the guy giving the finger to same in The Drive 's excellent take on why this is so. Driving is serious business. Ask Tiger Woods about this as he did nothing wrong in trying to negotiate a dangerous curve in CA. This design fubar is a long running disaster resulting in an increase in traffic fatalities, a tragic fact aided and abetted by fools texting on cell phones while driving. 

Pretty much every study of in-car touchscreens' effects on drivers reaches the same conclusion: They're a serious distraction. This holds true for tech-literate younger drivers as it does for older ones who might face a steeper learning curve, and for well-rested drivers as well as those fatigued by a long day at work. That goes double for the millions of Americans like me, who live with attentional, cognitive, or similar impairments that make dealing with these overwrought gadgets while driving not just a nuisance, but an unnecessary hazard.

Adding a touchscreen to the equation, however, introduces a second, wholly separate environment to monitor while driving. Figuratively speaking, a touchscreen is a separate space, one that competes directly with the outside world for my one-channel attention. This might not be a problem if it weren't for the poor working memory common to ADHD's inattentive and combined subtypes, which can make people like me feel like goldfish, with their (fictitious) seconds-long memories. For me, this has on multiple occasions manifested as putting food in the microwave, only to completely forget what I just did, then get hungry again, and begin boiling a pot of water for pasta—only for beeping to pleasantly surprise me with the meal I forgot I was preparing. So you can imagine that driving increasingly complex cars is similarly challenging sometimes, just with movement involved.

Tesla Model 3 infotainment system

I have imagined and ... I've have had close calls with bozos distracted by this tech. Is it really that hard for the software vendors to turn their code off when the car's in motion, whether it be in cabin display or cell phone as we got along just fine without this tech for over 80+ years while plying the open road. Worth thinking about don't you think?