“Do Not Disturb While Driving” Feature Helps Bad Habits

According to EverQuote’s Safe Driving Report, there are about 92% of US drivers that use their phone while driving, while about 88 seconds are spent on mobile devices during an average 21-minute ride.

To change this dangerous habit that almost every driver has, Apple created a new “Do Not Disturb While Driving” feature, which had launched with its iOS 11 update in September 2017. From September to October, about 80% of drivers used this feature, although 27% of users disabled it after the initial use. This feature works by blocking all notifications from appearing onscreen while the user is driving, until they reach their destination. This way, drivers are less inclined to look at their phones because they cannot see their notifications.

Due to users taking advantage of this feature, the phone usage while driving decreased about 8%. Although it wasn’t a significant decrease, the iPhone feature is helping drivers stop their bad habits of checking their texts, email and social media, which decreases the number accidents caused by phone usage while driving.