Don’t Text And Drive: The Video Game

Despite watching The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift at least six times (“How come you never show me your drifting?” “You never asked.”), driving is still not a special skill for the Omio team, much less driving whilst performing a secondary task.

The touch screen has put paid to many people’s efforts to texting whilst driving (Tried to type on an iPhone without looking? HARD.), but the New York Times thinks that stiff penalties and the threat of becoming a hurtling ball of flame on the motorway is not enough of a deterrent. They’re speaking to the unruly kids in the only language they understand, video games.

Their beautifully heavy-handed web game shows just how tough it is to pay attention to the road whilst texting. Well, not quite driving but using the numbers at the top of your keyboard to go through “gates,” and not quite texting but pecking at letters on a pretend phone with a mouse or trackpad.

As a simulation of texting and driving it is pretty diabolical, but it certainly does show that using a laptop whilst driving might prove challenging… Oh, and if you think that being able to overcome the ham-fisted controls and survive the Infinite Toll Booth Motorway makes you a better driver, the disclaimer says you’re not:

‘As with all games, intense levels of concentration or repetition can lead to more successful outcomes.’

Which means all I need to become a better texter-driver is some practice and a bit more concentration! Thanks, New York Times!

Source: Kotaku