In an effort to encourage people to be more responsible drivers, Audi has announced a new program asking motorists to take the “Driver’s Pledge.” The pledge has motorists promising to be more aware, safe, and efficient when driving—no matter what car they own. Some examples of good roadway behavior include not driving distracted, yielding to pedestrians, or reducing speed at yellow lights.

The pledge includes:

• I will place my hands at 9 and 3. Not 9 and latte.
  
• I will not text, eat, read, groom myself, or partake in any other distracting behavior while driving.
  
• I will not tailgate unless I'm in the parking lot of a stadium.
  
• I will not drive at a snail’s pace in the left-hand lane (unless of course, a snail’s pace is appropriate).

Although it has a tongue-in-cheek delivery, the underlying message is good. We might ask Audi to take this to heart and simplify their controls, as well.

For example, our engineers’ tech report on the 2011 Audi A8 noted: "The A8 has complicated controls. Most climate and radio functions require multiple steps to perform even simple functions. It can be hard to look down (and away from the road) and pick the one you want at a glance, especially at night...Some controls, like the oft-used quadrant of buttons that surround the primary controller knob, are a bit too small or awkwardly placed to use as intended.” (Full Track Reports are available to Cars Best Deals Plus subscribers and significantly expand upon the traditional road test.)

Those who take the pledge at http://www.driverspledge.com/ will be entered in a contest to win a trip for two to the Audi sports car experience in California. This program is part of the promotion for the new 2012 Audi A6, which has a number of safety systems including night vision with a thermal imaging camera to detect pedestrians, a safety warning system that applies the brakes in an emergency, and a hologram style heads-up display that projects navigation data over the windshield.

A safety promotion like this is an interesting program for Audi, as their vehicles are tailored to appeal to driving enthusiasts, especially the high-performance S variants. Audi is targeting them to take action against what they say are “challenging road conditions” and to make the road a “more intelligent place and allow drivers everywhere to once again enjoy the road.”

Audi isn’t the only automaker with a safety campaign. Earlier in the summer BMW announced an anti-texting campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving. We’ll see if other performance brands (or any other car companies) follow their lead.

It reminds us of cell-phone carriers jumping on the anti-texting bandwagon. No matter the industry, the best customer is a live one. And no company wants to see its brand, literally or figuratively, crash. Whatever the motivation, the increased focus on driving safety is good for motorists and all others who share the roads.