Research

Accidents on roads are primarily caused by attention diversion. Recently, smart phones and availability of internet has made the mobile-phones’ usage a biggest cause of diversion of drivers’ attention. Lately, cell phones became more dangerous than alcohol consumption while driving. The problem is as critical in the UAE as everywhere else in the world, which is evident from the statistics of Abu Dhabi Traffic department discussed in this report. To counter this problem, Al Ain University of Science and Technology (AAU) in collaboration with Al Ain Traffic and Patrols Directorate started a join research project to counter this problem, and many solutions have been discussed and suggested. One of which is disabling phones while driving. A mobile application that can disable the phone inside a vehicle if the vehicle is moving, and the phone reverts to its normal functionality if the vehicle stops. This disabling phone application has been backed up by a survey for acceptance in the UAE society. This research also shows the result of a survey carried out in UAE regarding the usage of cell phones during driving. This survey is one of many contributions of this research. Also, this research provides a detailed quantitative statistics of road accidents in UAE, in general, and that caused by mobile phone usage, in particular. Finally, this research reviews the psychological behaviors that are affected by using the mobile phone while driving.

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