Cognitive Overload when Multitasking

[jonovid]

I do believe in this present day, many are suffering cognitive overload.
after watching Dash Cam Owners Australia. seeing so many on the wrong side of the road.
is life today way too complicated

[SilverSolder]

Maybe tourists from right-side countries?

It is one of the crazy flukes of history that we've ended up with two opposite standards in effect globally...   What could possibly go wrong?

[eti]

I do believe in this present day, many are suffering cognitive overload.
after watching Dash Cam Owners Australia. seeing so many on the wrong side of the road.
is life today way too complicated

Touch screens are a huge part of the problem. You might think that doesn't make sense, but think about it - menu within menu within menu within menu, all on a glass touch surface where there's no tactile way to differentiate, without looking. THAT is a huge part of cognitive overload - companies think touch is a "solve-all" magic bullet. They are great, but NOT the solution to all technical challenges, and yet it seems as if the designers think they are a replacement for physical hardware buttons and switches.

[RJSV]

   I've seen some, where (that) person, you mention, after they do the 'one' swerve back...they go right back to mental drift mode...
   (Also seen; METH addled person, after starting one kitchen FIRE, proceeds to do same lame inattention - coupled with lousy, or no, attitude )

[Ed.Kloonk]

I wonder if we'll soon see perhaps a shift from the portable devices screen and car infotainment screen combined into a HUD type of thing. There, integrated with all the fancy AI smarts, you guide the vehicle rather than 'drive' it all the while receiving your regular dopamine hits.

What do you think?

[Nominal Animal]

You know, there is a dedicated Finglish term for this: multipaskaus.

The paskaus (IPA: ˈpɑskɑkɑu̯s) suffix translates pretty well into English as turning into shit, to do something badly or to break something.

I don't multitask at all.  I can't even chew gum and walk straight at the same time.  Fortunately, I rarely try, and I don't really like phones at all; never have, even though I've had a cellphone ever since '96 or so.

[jonovid]

I wonder if we'll soon see perhaps a shift from the portable devices screen and car infotainment screen combined into a HUD type of thing. There, integrated with all the fancy AI smarts, you guide the vehicle rather than 'drive' it all the while receiving your regular dopamine hits.

What do you think?

with the best of todays artificial intelligence the sat nav app should say-  with the best voice of Paul Hogan, HaY Dopey Y'r on the wrong side of the road Yu Mug!
its true some in-car user interfaces are more of a driver distraction then a help.
whatever happened to good research and development into driver distractions.  try looking for a street number, while on the phone , with the radio on, while trying to drive at the same time.
 

You know, there is a dedicated Finglish term for this: multipaskaus.

[PlainName]

Our consciousness is single-tasking, so to mullti-task we have to timeslice, and the particular problem there is that context switching, for us, takes more time than whatever task slice we are switching to or from.

So far as a motor vehicle is concerned, this is why learners tend to be planks. They know how to drive but have to think about it, so it's slow and consumes attention better spent looking for hazards. Once the driver drives enough, the act of driving is automatic so no longer requires a conscious task.

This is why touch controls are so shit at the moment - with physical buttons and stuff we learn where they are and how they feel, and eventually they disappear from our conscious thought (but not completely - that's a diversion for another time, perhaps). With touch controls there is no feedback so we have to look and search for indications that something has happened (correctly, mostly). That's conscious effort which detracts from driving. However, as we get used to them, perhaps touch controls will eventually merge into the background. It might need some additional help - perhaps a voice prompt - but once we are used to a repeatable means of operating them, and can then forget about the mechanics of doing so, they will be fine.

[SilverSolder]

Our consciousness is single-tasking, so to mullti-task we have to timeslice, and the particular problem there is that context switching, for us, takes more time than whatever task slice we are switching to or from.

So far as a motor vehicle is concerned, this is why learners tend to be planks. They know how to drive but have to think about it, so it's slow and consumes attention better spent looking for hazards. Once the driver drives enough, the act of driving is automatic so no longer requires a conscious task.

This is why touch controls are so shit at the moment - with physical buttons and stuff we learn where they are and how they feel, and eventually they disappear from our conscious thought (but not completely - that's a diversion for another time, perhaps). With touch controls there is no feedback so we have to look and search for indications that something has happened (correctly, mostly). That's conscious effort which detracts from driving. However, as we get used to them, perhaps touch controls will eventually merge into the background. It might need some additional help - perhaps a voice prompt - but once we are used to a repeatable means of operating them, and can then forget about the mechanics of doing so, they will be fine.

I agree, touch screens are really not a good idea in cars...   buttons and knobs are a robust and good user interface that you can use without looking.   The whole idea of forcing you to look away from the road to do something is just so badly thought out...    You have to wonder how the authorities approve that kind of stuff.  (See Dieselgate or Boeing 737 Max for more on that...)

[Howardlong]

I bought a loaded Hyundai Ioniq PHEV last year. I’ve hardly touched the surface with the buttons and touch screen: frankly when I get in a car, I just want to scoot off, life is too short.

A couple of weeks ago, I drew up to a charging point and went about plugging myself in and signing into the charging app. As I went to shut the boot/trunk, I could hear the car’s hands free going: perhaps I’d inadvertently made a call while signing into the charging app. Nope. The car had somehow detected what it thought was a crash, and had automatically called the police, not on my phone, but on a phone in the car I never knew I had.

[SilverSolder]

I bought a loaded Hyundai Ioniq PHEV last year. I’ve hardly touched the surface with the buttons and touch screen: frankly when I get in a car, I just want to scoot off, life is too short.

A couple of weeks ago, I drew up to a charging point and went about plugging myself in and signing into the charging app. As I went to shut the boot/trunk, I could hear the car’s hands free going: perhaps I’d inadvertently made a call while signing into the charging app. Nope. The car had somehow detected what it thought was a crash, and had automatically called the police, not on my phone, but on a phone in the car I never knew I had.

LOL!

The more complicated you make a system, the more interesting ways it can fail... 

[thm_w]

I bought a loaded Hyundai Ioniq PHEV last year. I’ve hardly touched the surface with the buttons and touch screen: frankly when I get in a car, I just want to scoot off, life is too short.

A couple of weeks ago, I drew up to a charging point and went about plugging myself in and signing into the charging app. As I went to shut the boot/trunk, I could hear the car’s hands free going: perhaps I’d inadvertently made a call while signing into the charging app. Nope. The car had somehow detected what it thought was a crash, and had automatically called the police, not on my phone, but on a phone in the car I never knew I had.

There is a red "SOS" button that also triggers it. Can't imagine how many false calls they are going to get from this though.

[Howardlong]

I bought a loaded Hyundai Ioniq PHEV last year. I’ve hardly touched the surface with the buttons and touch screen: frankly when I get in a car, I just want to scoot off, life is too short.

A couple of weeks ago, I drew up to a charging point and went about plugging myself in and signing into the charging app. As I went to shut the boot/trunk, I could hear the car’s hands free going: perhaps I’d inadvertently made a call while signing into the charging app. Nope. The car had somehow detected what it thought was a crash, and had automatically called the police, not on my phone, but on a phone in the car I never knew I had.

There is a red "SOS" button that also triggers it. Can't imagine how many false calls they are going to get from this though.

Coincidentally, I noticed this button a few days before, I didn't know what the difference was between that an the hazard warning light button was. I just ignored it: it has a protective flap over the top, for all I knew it was going to deploy a parachute or something.

[PlainName]

I just ignored it: it has a protective flap over the top

Doesn't have an explosively-released sunroof, per chance?