Touchscreens distract 93% of Kiwi drivers surveyed

Back to buttons? Drivers say knobs are easier behind the wheel

More than nine in 10 New Zealand drivers whose vehicles have touchscreens say they have been distracted while using them, according to a survey, raising questions about whether increasingly screen-heavy vehicle interiors are competing with the road for drivers’ attention.

A poll[1] by fleet safety experts AutoSense found 93 percent had experienced touchscreen distraction, with almost one in four (22.9 percent) saying it happened frequently and close to half (48.5 percent) occasionally.

Asked which vehicle controls were easiest to use while driving, 49 percent chose physical knobs and buttons, compared with just six percent who chose touchscreens - a preference of more than eight to one. A further one in five preferred a mix of both.

The poll of 476 New Zealanders also found almost 61 percent identified at least one screen, device or vehicle interface as something that commonly pulls their attention from the road - from adjusting controls and checking navigation to work alerts and hands-free calls.

AutoSense CEO Charles Dawson says the findings expose a growing tension in modern vehicle design: screens put more functions at drivers’ fingertips, but can also demand more of their eyes.

“A knob or button gives you tactile feedback. Once you know where it is, you can often make an adjustment without taking your eyes off the road,” Dawson says.

“With a touchscreen, you may need to find the right menu, see where your finger is landing and check the vehicle has responded. None of those glances may feel particularly dangerous on its own, but they add up.”

International vehicle safety standards are recognising the hazards; Euro NCAP’s 2026 protocols assess the placement, clarity and ease of use of essential vehicle controls, including whether physical buttons are provided for commonly used functions.

Dawson says the problem extends beyond private motorists. Commercial drivers can also be juggling navigation, dispatch systems, work tablets and incoming job alerts.

“Distraction doesn’t always look like somebody scrolling on their phone. It can be repeated, very short glances between the road and a screen, navigation prompt or work alert.

“The driver may never look away long enough to recognise it as a major distraction, but their attention is still being divided. It comes back to attention on task – or off task. If it is diverted elsewhere in the cabin, it is not fully on driving. There is no such thing as a ‘good’ distraction.” 

Known as Attention Sharing, this pattern of repeated short glances away from the road can be difficult to recognise. Guardian Generation 3, developed by Seeing Machines, uses camera-based gaze tracking to identify where a driver is looking, rather than relying largely on head position.

Guardian sounds an in-cab alert when a driver looks away from the road for a cumulative 10 seconds within a rolling 30-second period. If the driver returns their gaze to the road for more than two seconds, the timer resets, the attention sharing events are recorded and can be reviewed by the driver’s company. The technology comes from the same team behind advanced gaze-tracking systems used to measure pilot attention in aviation.

Dawson says this accuracy matters because drivers can quickly lose faith in warnings that don’t reflect what is actually happening.

“An alert has to mean something. If it accurately identifies that your attention has moved away from driving, it gives you the opportunity to correct it before the situation escalates.”

The technology is also helping New Zealand fleets identify when their own processes, rather than simply driver behaviour, are contributing to distraction.

AutoSense says some operators have changed when and how dispatch messages and new-job notifications are sent after data showed they were repeatedly drawing drivers’ eyes from the road.

“It isn’t always a case of blaming the driver. If the way work is being delivered is repeatedly pulling a driver’s eyes from the road, the operator has an opportunity and a responsibility to redesign that process.”

Dawson says the poll findings should matter to anyone responsible for reducing road risk - from motorists and vehicle manufacturers to fleet operators and insurers.

“Technology can improve safety, but only when it is designed around how people actually drive. Whether it’s the controls built into a car or the systems an employer asks a driver to use, keeping eyes on the road has to come first.”

[1]The AutoSense Driver Distraction Poll  surveyed 476 New Zealand respondents in August and September 2026. Of these, 367 said their vehicle had a touchscreen and answered the touchscreen-distraction question. The preferred-controls question was answered by 473 respondents.