Distraction is not a new concern for the AZT. It was first put on the agenda in 2011, in work on how everyday sources — children in the back, phones, smoking — pull at a driver's attention. In 2022 the Center flagged in-car touchscreens as an emerging risk. More than a decade of attention has not moved the underlying numbers as far as it should: road deaths in Germany have stalled at around 2,800 a year, and in 2024 police recorded 8,722 distraction-related injury crashes — a figure that almost certainly understates the true scale of the distraction problem.
Allianz Motor Day 2026
Swipe. Tap. Crash.
Driver distraction in the digital car
A report from the Allianz Center for Technology (AZT) for the Allianz Motor Day 2026
International Mobility Summit 2026
International Mobility Summit 2026
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A short history of AZT's work on distraction
Allianz Center for Technology: shaping the future of mobility
The AZT has anticipated how technological change reshapes risk for more than five decades. In the 1970s and 1980s it championed mandatory seatbelts in Germany — a measure that helped cut annual road deaths from around 15,000 to fewer than 3,000 today. Its low-speed crash tests revealed the true cost of seemingly minor collisions and laid the foundation for the vehicle type classes still used in motor pricing. In the 1990s, it helped shape anti-theft standards. That same forward-looking approach now informs its work on EV battery repair, the cybersecurity of connected cars, the liability puzzles of automation — and, this year, the safety cost of the digital cockpit. Its mission has not changed: safe, sustainable and affordable mobility, with insurers and policymakers equipped to navigate what comes next.
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Last updated: September 23, 2026
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