Safety Experts Slam Texting Toyota Yaris

Sep 15 2011

As time goes by, cars are equipped with an ever-widening range of technological gadgets.  Some of them, such as the interactive windscreen, are aimed at making driving safer.  Others, such as entertainment systems, are supposed to make life a little more fun while driving.  It was inevitable that sooner or later a conflict will arise between these two objectives.

In the case of Toyota this became apparent at the Frankfurt Motor Show, where the company exhibits a whole range of new models.  One of them is the new Toyota Yaris – which has now been slammed by safety experts because it is the first car in Britain to allow drivers to send text messages while driving.

Rivals have come up with similar solutions, but they only allow the driver to respond with a pre-programmed message, such as “I am driving now, will call back later.”  Toyota went a little bit further with the Yaris, letting drivers type and send text messages using the Touch & Go multimedia screen.  Safety experts’ main concerns are that this function also works when the car is on the move and that Toyota has plans to expand it to other models in their range.

As things stand now, the system is not illegal, since mobile phone laws only prohibit the use of hand-held phones.  Andrew Howard, the man in charge of road safety at the AA, fears that such a device would distract drivers.  He said: “People will feel pressured to reply to texts and not watch the road.”

Toyota’s response is that when you sign up for a car loan for this vehicle, you have to accept responsibility for your own actions.

Author - Louise Hutchinson
 

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