A new distracted driving report confirms what truckers know intuitively and expands upon what other studies say: Hands-free communications technology is just as distracting as hands-on.
The study was released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. It’s based on lots of surveys and included drivers wearing geeky headgear with electrodes measuring brain activity.
When compared with other diversions inside the car, “interacting with the speech-to-text system was the most cognitively distracting,” the report said. “This clearly suggests that the adoption of voice-based systems in the vehicle may have unintended consequences that adversely affect traffic safety.”
Hardly what the public thinks. Seven out of 10 people believe using hands-free devices is “somewhat” or “much” safer than using handheld devices while driving, says another study the foundation has been citing in conjunction with this topic.
The stakes are big. More than 3,000 people are killed, and almost a half-million injured, in accidents due to driver distraction. Many of those cases are related to a cell phone. As the foundation notes, these numbers could be underestimated, since it’s often difficult to document distraction factors after a wreck.
Now back to “cognitively distracting.” Use of communications technology often produces what the study calls “inattention blindness.” This means your eyes get it, but your brain doesn’t. The braking or swerving to avoid a wreck comes too late, if at all. A voice-based system can free your hands, but they remain on cruise control.
Driver attitudes toward talking or texting on a cell phone fall into the “do as I say, not as I do” category, based on surveys the AAA Foundation cites. Not surprisingly, these same hypocrites are also fond of other risky behavior, such as speeding and aggressive lane-changing.
