Distracted driving remains, to this day, and despite all current and past efforts to stop it, a leading cause of accidents, many of them fatal. Lexus would like to have a word with you if you, too, are in the habit of occasionally using your phone while driving to check or send a text.
April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month and, to do its part, Lexus has released a short film that aims to shift your perception of texting and driving. It’s called “Driving Disrupted,” and it is available in full at the bottom of the page.
Most people assume that whenever they’re driving and glance at the phone to check a text or maybe even pick it up to type a short reply back, they only take their eyes off the road for one second, two tops. In reality, the average time is 4.6 seconds, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). And these 4.6 seconds translated in 2019 into 3,142 fatalities from distracted driving.
Because seeing is believing (or not seeing, in this case), Lexus took an NX and modified it to render the driver completely blind for exactly 4.6 seconds. All participants assumed they would just be doing a regular test drive of the SUV. Electrochromic technology was used to turn the windshield and windows from clear to completely opaque instantaneously, so that while driving on a closed circuit, the people inside went completely and unexpectedly blind. As you can imagine, plenty of polystyrene foam pedestrians and animals perished in the experiment.
The goal of the video is to serve as an eye-opener. It is time to look back and reconsider our actions when driving, including what we might consider a minimal disruption like texting.
“Lexus wants to bring awareness to safety behind the wheel by changing perceptions about texting and driving,” Vinay Shahani, vice president of Lexus marketing, says in a press release. “Even the most advanced safety systems on the road today can’t replace the undivided attention of the driver.”
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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