Why I'm Done Pretending Touchscreen Infotainment Isn't a Stupid, Hazardous Fad

Pretty much every study of in-car touchscreens' effects on drivers reaches the same conclusion: They're a serious distraction.

That goes double for the millions of Americans like me, who live with attentional, cognitive, or similar impairments that make dealing with these overwrought gadgets while driving not just a nuisance, but an unnecessary hazard.

This might not be a problem if it weren't for the poor working memory common to ADHD's inattentive and combined subtypes, which can make people like me feel like goldfish, with their (fictitious) seconds-long memories.

So you can imagine that driving increasingly complex cars is similarly challenging sometimes, just with movement involved.

Operating something like Ford's dated, complex Sync 3 system on the move, then, be it to alter a vehicle function or skip a podcast ad, requires constantly re-orienting myself in two separate environments, losing awareness of the previous space with each switch.

Touchscreen infotainment systems have become central to controlling modern cars' evermore complex functions, though this has come at a cost to safety and ease of use—especially for people who experience life a bit differently from what we consider typical