Why you can be looking at the road and still miss things
I was recently driving home on a route I’ve taken hundreds of times, in the middle of a hands-free call with my dad. As he was trying to convince me that the Jets should draft a quarterback in every round of the upcoming NFL draft (“because one of them is bound to pan out”), I realized I had just cruised right past my exit.
It wasn’t a big deal and only added a few minutes to my trip, but it made me wonder how I missed something so routine. I wasn’t touching my phone, and had my eyes on the road, but for a moment I lost track of where I was.
I didn’t feel like I was distracted, so what exactly happened?
With April being Distracted Driving Awareness Month, it felt worthwhile taking a closer look at how distraction actually works.
What distracted driving usually looks like
We tend to think of distracted driving as something physical, such as looking down at a phone, taking your hands off the wheel, or turning to face a passenger. Those are risks we can see, measure, and design around.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for about 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that’s the equivalent of driving the length of a football field with your eyes shut.
That’s where technology has helped reduce the need for physical interaction. Hands-free systems like voice controls and in-car integrations make it easier to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.
But removing those physical distractions doesn’t mean your attention comes back with them.
What’s actually happening in your brain
Research from Carnegie Mellon University shows why. In a simulator study, drivers who were engaged in conversation showed a 37% drop in activity in the brain’s visual processing centers.
Even though their eyes were on the road, their brains were taking in less of what was happening around them. Not surprisingly, driving performance declined, as participants were more likely to drift out of their lanes or miss environmental cues.
Rethinking distracted driving
You don’t need to eliminate every call or interaction behind the wheel, but it helps to be more deliberate about when and how they happen.
That can be as simple as:
- Pausing conversations that require more focus like merging, navigating, or heavy traffic
- Keeping calls lighter and less demanding of your focus
- Recognizing when your attention is slipping, even if your eyes are forward
Leveraging technology for safety
While technology can be a distraction, the right tools can also act as a safety net.
Some tools make it easier to spot what you’d otherwise miss. Verizon Family, for example, highlights driving behaviors, such as:
- Hard acceleration, braking and cornering
- Speeding
- Phone usage by detecting if a screen is on or unlocked while driving
- Overall and individual trip scores to pinpoint exactly where your driving can improve
Other features, like Verizon Call Filter, take a different approach by reducing unnecessary interruptions altogether—screening out calls that don’t need your attention at the moment.
Because the risk isn’t always that you’re not looking at the road, it’s that you might be processing far less than you think.