WHILE LAWMAKERS in Massachusetts and across the country worked to pass distracted driving laws limiting how much a person can mess around on a phone while operating a car, built-in screens in cars themselves have far surpassed the size and sometimes even matched the capacity of the average cell phone.

Since 2019, car manufacturers have been in an arms race for the biggest screens possible to lure customers. More and more, lawmakers worry that the in-car displays are just as distracting for drivers as their smartphone cousins. 

“Even though cars are being billed with more safety features than ever before, backup alerts and proximity warnings and all kinds of stuff, we are still seeing pedestrian injuries and casualties, vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to bicycle,” said Rep. William Straus, House chair of the Joint Committee on Transportation. “So the dangerousness is still there.”

The Mattapoisett Democrat was referring to a recent report that found a record number of pedestrian road fatalities in 2022. Transportation officials are focused on road safety signage and pedestrian education campaigns. Straus thinks a solution might be inside the car.

An assortment of bills this cycle are taking aim at vehicle display screens. One proposed by Straus would require vehicles manufactured in 2025 and beyond to be designed to “lock out” certain tasks on their visual displays while being driven, such as manual text entry or playing videos. Another pitched by Sen. Mark Montigny of New Bedford offers similar language, mandating that no car registered in the Commonwealth be equipped with video screens that can offer entertainment unless they have the capacity to be locked out visually from the driver.

The subject was already on their minds, Straus said. “Internally, at least on the House side, we were talking about this going back three years,” he said. “Should we tackle the other big source of distracted driving, or focus on at least getting Massachusetts over the line on cell phones.” They concluded the momentum was in their favor, Straus said, and moved to pass the bill before them.

The 2019 distracted driving law required hands-free use of phones and other devices, but like many states, left a carve-out at the time for screens that were manufactured into the car. 

Touch screens, despite their safety and operations downsides, remain popular in part because they are cheaper to manufacture than a series of analog buttons and knobs, according to Hagerty Media, a car enthusiast magazine offshoot of Hagerty automobile insurer. But there is also a strong consumer preference for what feel like modern technological amenities in cars. 

A finding from a study of prospective car buyers highlights the consumer paradox at issue. While 29 percent of consumers nationwide who intend to buy a new vehicle within the next three years want a center screen that’s 10 inches or larger – at least the size of a new iPad – 39 percent of those consumers want distracted or drowsy driver monitoring systems in their cars.

“This is, I would think, a classic problem where consumers do want things that maybe in a broad sense, are not in theirs or other people’s best interest,” Straus said. “I don’t think you’d find any car manufacturer or their spokespeople who would say they’re doing this because they want to distract people. I’m sure they’ll tell you, ‘we tell them to drive carefully.’” 

Cars are similar to other dangerous products, like alcohol. Straus said. Drive responsibly. Drink responsibly. 

“The risk is the product [itself] or well known,” he said. Unlike altering substances, where there is primarily risk to the individual unless they get into a car, he said, “everything about driving is about the wider community. That’s why we have traffic markings on the road.”  

Directional signals, seatbelts, air bags – “Those things all developed because operating a motor vehicle poses such substantial risks, ultimate risk to everyone else that you come in contact with,” he said. “So this issue, I think, is elevated to me above just, well, consumer demand and people like this. I don’t think that’s a sufficient answer.”