According to the NHTSA, in 2015 almost four thousand people were killed in the U.S. because of distracted driving and another 391,000 injured. One of these distractions includes texting and driving.
This is why Nissan have built the Signal Shield, an aim to eliminate all distractions that come through your phone. By placing your phone into the Shield, built into the arm rest on the side of the Juke crossover, all mobile, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals are blocked from reaching your phone once the lid has been closed.
Driving while using a handheld device has been illegal in the UK since 2003 but following a series of serious incidents, penalty fines for texting while driving increased by £200 on March 1 this year. Managing Director of Nissan Motor GB, Alex Smith, said “Mobile phone use at the wheel is a growing concern across the automotive industry, and indeed society, particularly with the high number of pushed communications such as texts, social media notifications and app alerts that tempt drivers to reach for their devices.
The Nissan Signal Shield concept presents one possible solution for giving drivers the choice to remove all smartphone distractions while driving. This is about delivering more control at the wheel, not less.
Some drivers are immune to the activity of their smartphone, but for those who struggle to ignore the beeps and pings, this concept provides a simple solution in this very connected world we live in.”
The Nissan Juke is produced in Sunderland in the UK so it’s no surprise that the RAC were quick to publish a survey detailing that out of 1,700 UK drivers, 31% of them admitted to using their mobile phone while driving. This was an increase from 8% back in 2014. A spokesman for the RAC said:
“Our research shows that hand-held phone use by drivers has reached epidemic proportions. As mobile phone technology has advanced significantly, many people have become addicted to them. However, the use of a hand-held phone when driving represents both a physical and mental distraction and it has been illegal since 2003. The Nissan Signal Shield is a good example of a technology that can help drivers be phone smart. For those who can’t avoid the temptation, this simple but pretty clever tech gives them a valuable mobile-free zone.”
