When Safer Isn’t Always “Safer”
Every year in the United States, about 40,000 people lose their lives in traffic accidents. That number hasn’t meaningfully changed in decades. Beyond the human toll, those fatalities cost the nation hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
As a marketing scholar, I began asking a simple but urgent question: Are the features designed to keep drivers safe actually helping them, or are they making driving more dangerous?
I’m an associate professor of Marketing in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics, and my research focuses on consumer safety, particularly in the context of driving. Over the past several decades, car manufacturers have introduced more and more features — touchscreens, alerts, displays — all with the intention of making vehicles safer.
While many of these tools are helpful, they can also distract drivers in ways we’re only beginning to understand. My work examines when these features support safety, when they undermine it and how those effects vary across age groups.
Testing Distraction in Real Time
To study these questions, my research combines large-scale traffic data with controlled experimental testing.
I analyze state-level datasets that track traffic fatalities over time, allowing me to examine long-term patterns and trends. But numbers alone don’t tell the full story.
That’s why we also use a driving simulator, which is an experimental environment where we can observe how drivers actually respond to different features and distractions in real time.
Working with a colleague in civil engineering, we study how drivers react to things like billboards, incoming phone calls, pedestrians and dashboard features.
Using eye-tracking technology and galvanic skin response sensors, we can see where drivers are looking and how their bodies respond emotionally when distractions appear. This allows us to measure not just whether drivers are distracted, but how that distraction affects attention and cognitive load.
Our early findings suggest that advanced features can sometimes give younger drivers a false sense of confidence, encouraging riskier behavior. Older drivers, on the other hand, often find these same features cognitively taxing.
My goal is to develop a framework that helps both manufacturers and consumers understand which features truly improve safety.
And which may unintentionally do the opposite.
From Marketing Science to Public Impact
What makes this research especially meaningful to me is its real-world impact. Consumers are often led to believe that the newest car is automatically the safest car, but that isn’t always true. Some manufacturers have already begun rethinking certain design choices, including the use of large touchscreens that can pull drivers’ attention away from the road.
This work grew out of earlier projects funded by the Tennessee Highway Safety Office, where I helped develop awareness campaigns aimed at reducing traffic fatalities. Over time, I realized that as a marketing professor, I could contribute in a different way.
Working with University of Memphis students has been one of the most rewarding parts of this journey. They are deeply committed, highly motivated and excited to see how research can create immediate and long-term benefits. Together, we’re building marketing science and knowledge that helps people make safer choices every day.
Watch Dr. Subhash Jha’s Research in a Minute video below.
