经济学人下载:道路安全--挑剔的司机(1)

Step inside most modern cars and instead of all the dials and switches
坐进大多数现代汽车里，你很可能会发现，

that used to clutter the dashboard you are likely to find it dominated by a touchscreen.
以前挤在仪表盘里的刻度盘和开关现在都是触屏操作。

Often there is more than one screen, and some are bigger than those on a laptop.
车内通常不止一个屏幕，一些甚至比电脑平面还大。

But, though touchscreens provide a convenient way to operate a multitude of controls and settings,
虽然触屏提供了便捷的操控方式，

the latest research shows they can also be dangerous distractions.
但最新研究表明它们也可能是危险的干扰。

To discover how badly touchscreens distract drivers, Neale Kinnear and his colleagues at the Transport Research Laboratory,
为了探究触碰对司机的干扰有多严重，前英国政府机构、现独立检测机构——

a former British-government agency now run as an independent test facility, arranged a series of experiments.
运输研究实验室的Neale Kinnear和他的同事进行了一系列试验。

They recruited two groups of 20 drivers. One consisted of regular users of Google's Android Auto,
他们雇佣了两组司机，每组20人。其中一组是谷歌的Android Auto的老用户，

a popular "infotainment" app which lets drivers interact with their phone through a car's touchscreen.
这是一款很受欢迎的“娱乐信息节目”应用，能够让司机通过汽车的触屏与他们的手机互动。

The others were partisans of Android Auto's main rival, Apple CarPlay.
另一组是Android Auto的主要竞争对手苹果CarPlay的支持者。

Each participant completed three 15 minute journeys along a set virtual route using the laboratory's sophisticated driving simulator.
每位参与者使用实验室先进的驾驶模拟器，沿着设定的虚拟路线完成3次15分钟的旅程。

On one of these trips they had to carry out tasks using only the touchscreen.
在其中一次旅行中，他们只能使用触屏来完成任务。

These tasks included navigating to a restaurant, playing a particular song on Spotify (a music service),
这些任务包括导航区一家餐厅、在音乐软件Spotify上播放某一首歌、

changing radio channels, getting the system to read out a text message, and making a "hands-free" telephone call.
调换广播电台、让系统朗读一条短信，以及打“免提”电话。

On the second trip they had to do the same, but using only the car's voice-activated controls instead. The third journey was a control, with no assigned tasks.
在第二次旅程中，他们需要做同样的任务，但只使用汽车内的声控系统。第三次旅程是一个对照组，不需要做任务。

Whenever a red bar flashed on the windscreen the researchers measured
每当挡风玻璃上的红色条带闪烁时，

how long it took a driver to react by pulling the indicator stalk to flash the car's lights.
研究人员就会通过拉动指示杆来闪动车灯，以此来测量司机的反应时间。

As they expected, drivers using touch controls on the screen took longer to respond to the flashing bar than did those using voice controls.
正如他们所料，与使用声控系统的司机相比，使用触屏操作的司机需要更长的时间来响应闪烁的工具条。

Though the difference might be less than a second, at motorway speeds this would result in an increased stopping distance of up to 25 metres.
虽然差异可能不足一秒，但在高速公路上，这将导致停车距离增加到25米。

Dr Kinnear was, however, surprised by the amount of time drivers' attention was diverted by the series of glances needed to operate the screen.
但Kinnear博士惊讶地发现，驾驶员的注意力被触屏操作所吸引的时间如此之长。

Among the worst outcomes were a mean of 20 seconds of cumulative glances using Android Auto to play a song on Spotify,
最糟糕的结果是，使用Android Auto在Spotify上播放一首歌，平均需要20秒的累积浏览时间，

and of 16 seconds to set up the route to a restaurant with CarPlay.
使用CarPlay设置去餐馆的路线需要16秒。