Are Drivers Ready for In-Car Advertising?

Vehicle manufacturer Ford recently filed trademark documents for what they’re calling a “billboard interface for vehicle displays” that has left some experts wondering about the future of automotive safety. This proposed interface would use the vehicle’s cameras to capture information from roadside billboards and communicate the information to the vehicle’s display to present to the user (i.e.; passengers and/or driver).

Or, put more simply, Ford is patenting the tech to have cars scan billboards as we drive, for the purpose of serving up advertisements directly to our vehicle’s dashboard displays. If that sounds a little bit risky to you, you are not alone. As car enthusiast website Jalopnik states, “There’s no way that an advertisement is not going to be distracting, even if they’re silent. A momentary change in an infotainment screen redirects your gaze away from the road and nabs a precious sliver of attention that should instead be focused on the asphalt in front of you.”

What is the Ford technology all about?

In their patent filing, Ford appears to be attempting to solve a legitimate problem, but in the long run could potentially cause another. We are all familiar with billboard advertising – we rely on them to find gas, rest stops, or food while traveling. However, billboards have their limits. Passing one at 55mph or more doesn’t give you much time to read and digest what you see, and having a scenic drive interrupted with constant billboards doesn’t make for a pleasurable experience, either.

Ford seems to be aiming for a solution by leveraging a vehicle’s existing camera technology to detect passing billboards and direct that information to a driver’s dash or infotainment screens so a driver and their passengers can view it for longer. Further, the system could generate hyperlinks to allow a user to pull up a website, phone number, menu, or other options.

Gizmodo provides an example of how this might work: “You might be driving by a billboard hawking a Whopper, and the passengers in the vehicle could be given the option to watch a Burger King ad.”

From a marketing perspective, this may be a great idea. However, from a safety perspective, the potential for distracted driving is alarming.

How might in-car ads lead to distracted driving?

A study from the American Automobile Association (AAA) found that in-vehicle infotainment systems (like voice-activated, graphic-rich dashboard displays) indeed cause distracted driving, pointing out that taking your eyes off the road for just two seconds doubles the risk of a car crash. AAA also found that older drivers become more distracted by infotainment systems – removing their eyes from the road more than eight seconds longer than younger drivers when interacting with their dashboard systems.

Said Dr. David Yang of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, “Voice-command functions found in new in-vehicle technology are intended to help drivers by keeping their eyes and attention on the road. Unfortunately, the complexity and poor design of some of these systems could cause more harm for older drivers, in particular, instead of helping them.”

In their study, AAA tested visual and cognitive responses to the demand created by in-vehicle infotainment systems. They found that these systems can create unsafe distractions for all drivers, although older adults took longer to complete tasks and experienced slower response times, and increased visual distractions.

However, Jake Nelson, also of AAA, pointed out, “This is a design problem, not an age problem. Designing systems to meet the safety and comfort needs of aging drivers would benefit all of us today, and for years to come.”

Although Ford currently has no public plans to launch any new product, it is worth talking about the future implications of these types of technologies and automotive safety.

Related: The Reality of Safety Technology in Our Vehicles: Are We Really Safer?

If you or a loved one were injured in a car or truck crash, please reach out to the experienced attorneys at Plaxen Adler Muncy, P.A. today. We hold the right people responsible when their actions injure another. To schedule a free consultation about your case, give our Maryland offices a call at 410-730-7737 or use our contact form.