Smartwatches vs. Smartphones: Notification Engagement while Driving

This work seeks to understand whether the unique features of a smartwatch, compared to a smartphone, mitigate or exacerbate driver distraction due to notifications, and to provide insights about drivers' perceptions of the risks associated with using smartwatches while driving. As smartwatches are gaining popularity among consumers, there is a need to understand how smartwatch use may influence driving performance. Previous driving research has examined voice calling on smartwatches, but not interactions with notifications, a key marketed feature. Engaging with notifications (e.g., reading and texting) on a handheld device is a known distraction associated with increased crash risks. Two driving simulator studies compared smartwatch to smartphone notifications. Experiment I asked participants to read aloud brief text notifications and Experiment II had participants manually select a response to arithmetic questions presented as notifications. Both experiments investigated the resulting glances to and physical interactions with the devices, as well as self-reported risk perception. Experiment II also investigated driving performance and self-reported knowledge/expectation about legislation surrounding the use of smart devices while driving. Experiment I found that participants were faster to visually engage with the notification on the smartwatch than the smartphone, took longer to finish reading aloud the notifications, and exhibited more glances longer than 1.6 s. Experiment II found that participants took longer to reply to notifications and had longer overall glance durations on the smartwatch than the smartphone, along with longer brake reaction times to lead vehicle braking events. Compared to the no device baseline, both devices increased lane position variability and resulted in higher self-reported perceived risk. Experiment II participants also considered that smartwatch use while driving deserves penalties equal to or less than smartphone use. The findings suggest that smartwatches may have road safety consequences. Given the common view among participants to associate smartwatch use with equal or less traffic penalties than smartphone use, there may be a disconnect between drivers' actual performance and their perceptions about smartwatch use while driving.