Presumably, you're not driving while you're reading this.

Gazing at a newspaper may be about the only thing drivers aren't doing these days. Myriad tech devices have joined the "traditional" distractions working to pull drivers' eyes from the road. Who could have imagined years ago that drivers sometimes would be watching DVDs playing in the back seat of another car?

The good news is that the consumer electronics industry realizes there is a problem. The bad news is that it's not quite sure how to balance safety needs with consumers' ever-growing hunger for cars chock-full of the latest, greatest gadgetry.

An expert panel at the recent International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas had a few ideas on the matter, although at least one audience member later suggested that technology has worked to actually reduce distraction — giving kids their own DVD player with headphones allows Mom or Dad to drive without a deafening backseat babble.

"Everyone and their brother wants to sell or bring some kind of CE, either embedded in the vehicles, carried into the vehicle or as an aftermarket device," said Robert Michael Gardner, director of Motorola Intelligent Systems Research Lab.

One problem is that no one is certain how much the gadgets are befuddling drivers. Joseph Kanianthra, associate administrator for vehicle safety research for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said crash data "is simply not complete."

A 100-car study that started last year has racked up 1.37 million miles over 43,000 hours, yielding about 76 crashes — 38 percent of which were related to distracted drivers, he said.

"With new technologies coming into vehicles, it becomes more a challenge now than ever before. . . . Some things engage us with more attention-demanding tasks in the vehicle, and they may require our attention more (often)," he said. "Driving is a very, very difficult task . . . that demands all our attention."

A recent University of Utah study indicates that when drivers between 18 and 25 talk on cell phones — headsets or not — they drive like elderly people, moving and reacting more slowly and increasing their risk of accidents.

But, Kanianthra said, troubles crop up when drivers figure the potential hazards are not a high priority.

"We believe that it is tied to your perception of the risk itself. It's not, of course, that you are ready to jump into a lake, but sometimes that happens because your perception of risk is not high," he said.

"A lot of things are trying to get the driver's attention," Gardner said. "People are doing a lot more in their car than they ever did."

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