

Ninety percent of respondents consider themselves to be a good driver, but 49 percent admit to driving while distracted.įrom eating food (55 percent) to making a phone call (51 percent) or checking their notifications (36 percent) – it seems Americans might not be as safe as they think.Ī third (33 percent) of those surveyed have changed the music on their phone while driving and 32 percent have sent a text while behind the wheel. That’s in addition to driving the same route every day (34 percent) or when driving feels monotonous (27 percent).Ĭonducted by OnePoll on behalf of Root Insurance, the survey examined Americans’ safe – and unsafe – habits when behind the wheel.
#Zombie driver safety video drivers#
“Zombie driving” commonly occurs when drivers have a lot on their mind (49 percent), they’re driving while tired (42 percent) or driving on a stretch of road they’re familiar with (40 percent). The average respondent zones out four times a week, and reports it happening more when driving long distances (43 percent). The survey of 2,000 drivers found that 27 percent admit to zoning out behind the wheel and over half – 55 percent – say they feel like they often drive on autopilot. More than a quarter of Americans are “zombie drivers,” according to new research. Analyzing facial expressions, voice and tone consumes a lot of energy, making these calls even more draining.New York office - 64 / COPY w/ VIDEO & INFOGRAPHIC This demands more focus since we’re missing critical body language cues and hand gestures for a fuller image of the conversation. Zoom video meetings are taxing on the brain as we mostly see people from the waist up.

There’s a higher risk of cognitive distraction, looking at the road while your thoughts are elsewhere, so you may not notice a dangerous situation soon enough to react SEE ALSO: PEDESTRIAN SAFETY TAKES CENTER STAGE DURING CORONAVIRUS Think traffic lights, emergency vehicles, pedestrians, and even environmental sounds that can alert danger. A driver can miss out on various signals that make for driving safety. This results in a number of behaviors while driving such as not being able to process the information in front of you., also known as cognitive overload. The surge in video conference calls means more people are zoning out behind the wheel. The Root Insurance study also found that last year 53% of respondents admitted to checking their cellphones within the first 15 minutes of driving - a 9% jump from 2019 - when they should be trying to shift focus to driving.įor true digital natives, Gen Z drivers who are born from 1995 to 2010, 65% reported losing focus while driving The NHSA estimated more than 10% of highway fatalities involved distracted driving. That’s 18 times every 100 miles! Distracted driving is a major problem nationwide. Over 10% of highway fatalities involved distracted drivingĪ recent Root Insurance analysis of 3.1 billion miles driven, the average American used their cellphones once every 5.5 miles in 2020. Drivers are more like to operate on autopilot. The ever-growing reliance on technology like video meetings, along with constant screen time from other devices such TVs and cellphones, have most drivers carry the distracted behavior into their vehicles. Upwork’s latest “Future of Workforce Pulse Report” says that by 2025, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely- an 87% increase from pre-pandemic levelsĪ national consumer survey of close to 2,000 Americans reported 54% of those who drive after video chatting have trouble concentrating. On a miles-driven basis, that’s 24% more and the biggest year-over-year increase since 1924! In fact, the National Safety Council just reported 42,060 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2020. A new study suggests this lack of concentration has had a part in the surge of fatal car accidents since we first heard about the coronavirus.

As Americans have been working endless hours from home, video meetings are making it harder to focus when they’re behind the wheel. Zoom Zombies may be the newest term to join the automotive industry lexicon. Microsoft reported about 75 million daily active users of Teams 70% more from March to April.Ĭisco had about 300 million Webex users, with 240,000 sign-ups in a 24-hour periodĥ4% of those who drive after video conference calls have trouble concentrating

In fact, Zoom had around 300 million daily meeting participants by the end of April 2020, compared to only 10 million in December 2019. Suddenly, Americans are spending hours-on-end having video meetings or video conferencing on platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Team, and Google Meet. Zoom, Team, Meet and video conferencing options Google Meet is adding about 3 million new users every day, and had about 100 million daily Meet participants by April last year
