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Hands-Free Or Voice-Activated Texting Not Safer
Meshach writes "A recent study (PDF) detailed in the Washington Post verifies that using hands-free or voice-activated texting is no safer than texting with your hands while you are driving a car. Using a handheld device to tap out a text message while driving has been banned in many states and provinces. From the article: '"One of the common comments was that they felt an inclination to look down at the screen to see if it heard them correctly, so that could be one possible explanation of why they were not looking at the roadway more frequently," Yager said. She said drivers said they felt safer when using voice-activated texting than when entering messages on a keyboard. "Perhaps it is because they view it as safer and therefore it must be, but still they have this inclination to look down at the screen," she said. "We found that their driving performance suffered equally with both methods." As has been proven in studies of cellphone conversations, Yager said drivers engaged in any form of texting were distracted by the communication effort.'"
In response to a big push by LEO in CA on the cell phone laws, I recently got one of those dorky 90's dash mounts for my phone. it's great because the phone is pretty much in my line of sight, but it's still distracting to activate the voice sms dictation. So I would say it's MUCH better than doing it by hand, but still not as good as not doing it!
Use a bluetooth headset, and just call them on the phone. How hard can that be really.
My hands free reads my text back to me after I speak it and then asks for a confirmation.... That *should* be safer as I am not looking at the device...
That giant touchscreen display for your Pandora, sirius, FM/AM, 6 disc cd changer and environmental controls is completely safe. Bolt a gps and a radar detector to the dash and you practically have a sensory depravation chamber.
If only there was a way to communicate in real time, via 2 way voice...
Someday.... someday...
Place nail here >+
Texting, eating, makeup, reading the paper, whatever you're doing is irrelevant if you're not watching the road. Dee.
So is talking to a passenger as distracting as talking to a hands-free cell phone?
if only because you are looking at the road instead of looking down at your screen. it isnt actually much safer because you are still being distracted from driving... but it still is technically safer.
Is to place heavy fines on any one caught driving while in possession of a mobile device.
Just think of the added revenue!
I'm amazed we survived for so long without texting while driving. Whatever will we do if it becomes illegal in any form? Oh the horrors!
Driving is inherently unsafe. Add in all the variables, including other drivers, and you've pretty much signed your death warrant. My solution is to ban driving.
Yet another poor quality study.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
How can one keep texting in a merging lane of a freeway?
I knew at least one voice-text speech company whose sales staff and company president, at every staff meeting, would urge all their staff to get on message boards and product reviews and talk up how much it helped their driving. Of course, they weren't supposed to *identify* themselves as employees. But frankly, after riding around with some people who text while driving, I will never get in their cars again. They're using their cars as their offices, and it is *dangerous* anywhere near them. Not for them, because their belly padding and their overpriced, leased manhood compensators are relatively safe from the accidents. But for anyone on the road near them, with lighter cars or bikes or pets or kids endangered by these idiots and the cars they ignore and force to swerve, it's a lot more dangerous.
They're worse than families with kids in the car screaming, because they think it's *normal* to drive that distracted.
How about hands-free or voice-activated sexting?
All they need to do is pass a law prohibiting any sort of distraction in the vehicle. Sunlight, fog, rain, snow, children, radios, cell phones, pagers, books, newspapers, makeup, bad days at work, bad days at home, sun visors, allergies, bodily functions, passengers, etc. etc. Once all the distractions are outlawed, there will never be another accident on the road ever again, proving that the government can indeed regulate us to safety! -------- There really needs to be a "sarcasm" font....
What did cyclists, pedestrians and other drivers think?
The surviving ones, I mean.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Why not just phone? if they're not there, leave a message. I must be missing something...
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
In other news Seat belts and airbags made users feel safer and drive recklessly. Lets ban seat belts and airbags!
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
Voice, bluetooth, text, handheld, hendsfree, VoiceToText.....screw you.
As someone who is waiting on a (too small) settlement check for my destroyed vehicle, all I can say is put the fucking phone away and drive the damn car.
Texting teen blows a red light at 60, and I'm lucky the only thing destroyed was my vehicle. I am still vertical and breathing.
Hanging upside down from the seatbelt, covered in broken glass was not the way I wanted to spend the afternoon.
I agree with the parent, reaction time is only a single measure of driver "effectiveness". I can't help but wonder if we are asking the wrong questions in these studies. A better study would compare the accident rates in locations that have hands-free/no-text laws with those that don't.
One study by the Highway Loss Data Institute indicates a slight increase in accidents after no-texting laws are introduced. One possible explanation is that with the new laws, drivers continue to text but with the phone below the window sightline, causing the driver to look away from the road for longer periods of time.
Exactly the opposite result as the law intended!
Right, they're looking at the screen and it defeats the purpose of voice activated hands free. I use Siri for quick texts while I'm driving. "Tell my wife I'm on my way." Siri says something about sending a text and "Ready to send it?" "Read it." Siri reads it back. "Send it." If Siri is having a deaf moment, I'll leave it alone until I get to a red light or I'll pull off the road if needed. Like condoms for birth control, voice activated hands free is only safer if done right.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
we survived precisely because of lack of texting while driving. our days are numbers DOOM I say DOOM, and it will all begin because of a acne covered teen driving while texting in a Burb Beater.
there I think I covered it all.
We are very bad at multitasking.
The only question that is important, is this: is that text message really more important than the life of some kids or even your own.
Privacy is terrorism.
Lots of comments here by people thinking they're the exceptional case, or are stupid enough to think that the reason people crash while talking on cell phones is because they have one hand off the wheel (and thus handsfree "removes the danger").
Common sense is unfortunately not a strong point among the human race.
Why would anybody think it would be safer? The safety issue in texting is not the hands leaving the wheel (although that is problematic but a separate issue). The safety issue is driver distraction. If you are focused on what you are texting versus driving, then your inattention is what creating the safety issue.
Similar studies have shown that talking on the cell phone hands free is also only marginally safer than holding it in your hand while talking. It's simple math - at 70 mph if you are distracted for 1 sec, you have traveled 102 feet. Multiply that by multiple distractions and it's not hard to see how distracted driving is a serious problem.
A long as they deny their inability to safely multitask they can justify endangering the rest of us.
Is it really that hard to just drive?
Look it up in the font of all wisdom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_and_driving_safety (referenced studies).
People in general probably think handheld use is significantly more dangerous because legislators are not scientifically literate
and pass half-measures legislation.
Remember, common sense is neither common nor sensible. And 90% of conventional wisdom is wrong <= Including this.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
The whole 'hands free' thing went through our company, and is still the safety policy - you may NOT talk on the phone while driving without a hands-free set.
This is, simply, asinine.
The point of distracted driving isn't (mostly) about what's in your HAND. It's about being...distracted, ie your mind on something other than driving.
Not to mention, I can't count the number of times I've been in a salesman's car, his phone rings, and the dumb sunuvabitch starts rifling through his console trying to find the hands-free thingy while racing along the highway at 70+ mph.
-Styopa
If only there existed some way to send voice messages directly. That way you wouldn't be distracted by having to look down to see if the voice-to-text app parsed your speech correctly. You could send a recording of your spoken message directly to the recipient. We could call it, oh I dunno, "voicemail."
Seriously the chaos over this reminds me of in our town. Everyone is trying to squeeze onto the double-yellows (parking at the side of the road on areas where it's actually been marked as not permitted, which is typically a £60 fine if anyone ever checks) after 6pm on an evening when at that time it's well publicised that the car park a ~20 second walk away is FREE. Everyone is far too lazy and impatient. I get that things can be a bit of effort sometimes and that life can be a bit of a rush. But it's not a gargantuan effort. Either case takes like 20 seconds. Pull over and then text!
My hands free reads my text back to me after I speak it and then asks for a confirmation.... That *should* be safer as I am not looking at the device...
My girlfriend would text me often when I was on the road, so I looked forward to Siri's integrated voice system so I could hear the message while driving. Overall it works well but does become more distracting than a simple phone call in some cases.
So here I am driving and get a text message: First, I need to ask Siri (I'm sure there's similar issues across platforms) to read message and HOPE it can pronounce everything right or there's a temptation to read it on the screen. Then, I wait for the question if I want to respond. I say "yes" and wait for Siri to ask for my message. All this time, I'm concentrating on hearing the prompts.
Next, I dictate my message and HOPE it understood what I was saying. (Note: I do have a bluetooth handsfree built into the car so at least I'm not holding it in one hand up to my face while driving. Although, this probably doesn't work as well as speaking directly in phone). If it repeats wrong, then I have to say "cancel" or "change it" and then wait for the prompt again. This time I concentrate more on how I pronounce everything. If all goes well, then I finally can say "send it".
So something that could be handled in a 10 second phone call now took 30+ seconds of dictating and concentrating on what the phone is saying to me. I can see how this could be just as bad.
I love the sound of distortion in the morning -- webcommando
... especially with my voice activated dialing. A usual exchange:
Me: "Call Beth Mobile."
Phone: "Call Meg?"
Me: "No"
Phone: "Call Karen?"
Me. "No!"
Phone: "Call Susan?"
Me: "NO! Who are these people? I don't even know a Meg, Karen, or Susan!"
Phone: "Try again."
Me (speaking slowly and over-enunciating): "C-A-L-L B-E-T-H M-O-B-I-L-E."
Phone: "Text Virginia?"
Me: "AAARRGGGHHH!!!!" (Picks up phone, switches to recently dialed numbers, and clicks my wife's entry.)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
how about these.
I actually read the article for once and it was just SIRI, VLINGO.
IMHO, this link here to android mirrors have much better promise for safe texting.
phone in rear view mirror
speed limit aware cruise control
Humans are not designed for multitasking. I don't care who you are or what pseudo-management school bullshit you have been fed, if you breathe air, you aren't designed to multitask. People can handle interrupts, but interrupts isn't multitasking. Interrupts are stopping what you are doing, then doing something else for a short time, then returning to the first thing. Multitasking is doing a bit of one thing for a short time, then doing something else for a short time, then back and forth, and doing it so fast it *appears* that you are doing two or more things at once. Humans don't context switch that fast. They can switch every 5 minutes maybe, but not for things that require faster switching like driving a car (responding to a stop sign for instance). When driving, attempting to do anything else is (as has been demonstrated tens of thousands of times over the past 15 years), deadly. People who yap on the phone or text or anything else while driving are more dangerous than drunks. That's proven too. A bluetooth transmitter in the seat of the drivers seat that shuts cell phones off would be a perfect safety feature. Passengers can talk, but drivers, no. No texting either.
So what you're saying is that voice to text systems don't allow me to say "nah mean nah'm saying" like i would with everybody else in the car. great. then fucking give me a call and dont text me, fool, and also when I pull up I'm the grey not the silver silverando and you need exact change, brotha and keep your friends aside less they got scrilla i don't care to know they name does they got scrilla? doesn't matter fool, who texts a dealer en route, fool, that shit is dangerous, and doesn't nah what the fuck i mean, definitely doesn't nah what the fuck i mean, so here's your phone, here is your face, I know, i know, i know the phone is in shambles, and it seems a damn shame your face does not match. Leroy take this subhuman away from me, and make him and his friends reach a state where they understand the state of their phones, and they understand the risk of texting to me while i'm already on the mobile. Leroy, Leroy, please. Leave them alive at least. Oh, Leroy, the UN should be stopping you once you have a go at it, yea? Listen we werent here, goodbye, Sam was it? Doesn't matter don't text me while I drive I know it won't happen now...
Distracted driving is distracted driving. It is a pet peeve of mine that hand-held cellphones and texting is singled out, vilified and viciously punished, while other forms of distractions are entirely passed over. Talking on the phone, whether holding it up to your ear or not, is still talking on the phone, and equally distracting done either way.
"Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
While the user is focused on that, they are not scanning their surroundings properly and actually analyzing what their eyes are seeing.
I see this sort of disconnect between vision and processing ALL THE TIME on my motorcycle at intersections. People looking at you, and processing you and registering you as "seen" are two ENTIRELY DIFFERENT things. They aren't looking for a motorcycle, they're looking for a car. Hence, even though they stare straight at me, they pull out anyhow.
The text vs voice input is similar. Just because they are not looking at the screen and are physically looking outside, it doesn't mean their brain is spending cycles on processing it. Another motorcycle related analogy is this: you have $1 worth of brain-cpu time. You can spend it on different things, but you can only ever spend the $1. If you spend 70c on looking forwards, 10c on steering, 10c on route-planning and 10c on evaluating traffic, you have zero cents left. If you then spend 10-20c worth of your brain on sending a message, whether it is via text or siri or whatever, you need to re-allocate some previously used processing time on it. That will come out of your $1 worth. It can't be had for free. Something else will suffer.
This is why when learning a track you're told not to try and ride it at 100%, and even top level riders can not maintain 100% pace for long. Because when you are spending $1 on trying to control the bike, you have nothing left over to analyze the circuit, plan your race strategy, etc.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
It would be more secure if speech recognition was almost error-free and the computer-human interaction more elaborate - e.g. including contextual clues about the driving situation. Basically, you'd need to be able to send a text message by mumbling "uhm, send a message to John whatever, you know, that I'll be late because of uhm traffic" where your phone might interrupt you at anytime and say "Hey, watch where you drive!"
Technology is not yet that far but likely in 10-20 years. However, in my opinion any such technology should be required to be developed as safety-critical systems like in avionics, and then it was no longer affordable.
'"One of the common comments was that they felt an inclination to look down at the screen to see if it heard them correctly, so that could be one possible explanation of why they were not looking at the roadway more frequently,"
So voice texting (like all voice recongnition products I have ever come across) basically doesn't work very well despite the grandiose claims of the "we'll have real AI in 5 years time" fanatics?
What a surprise.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Hang up the phone. Drive. 20 years ago you DID NOT HAVE THAT PHONE. What would you have done then? You'd have driven, and then called from your destination.
There is NOTHING that urgent that you have to do it in the car and can't pull over. Especially not a phone call. CERTAINLY not a text.
Drive the damn car, and enjoy the peace and quiet or some gentle music as you travel. Stop for people on crossings. Give that bike a bit of extra room to make his life easier. ANY and ALL "slowdowns" on your travel will have such a tiny, insignificant effect on your actual arrival time that it's just not worth worrying about. And any savings can be wiped out by the tiniest bit of roadworks or bad timing on the traffic light or whatever else.
Enjoy driving again. And throw away the god-damn phone.
Please also apply this if you are in the following categories:
- Waiting to pull out on a busy road and so distracted on your phone that other drivers DELIBERATELY do not let you out (or you don't even see the gap because you're too busy talking).
- Have your sat-nav front-and-center of your driving position, splat-bang in the way of actually seeing real objects (they talk for a reason, and can be put on your dash for absolutely no cost whatsoever).
- Eating at the wheel. If you're that hungry, you can't concentrate properly. If you're in a rush, you're going to kill someone and then you'll be later than ANYTHING else. If you're doing it because you need something for your hands to do: DRIVE.
- Smoking at the wheel. I don't care about your personal habits, I'm not even advocating a rigid "two hands on wheel at all times", necessarily (hell, that even makes putting your indicators on or changing gear almost impossible). I just care about you not having a burning object in your hand that is dripping ash into your lap that you'll try to blow out of the window or throw the cigarette out, and you have to keep puffing on while trying to drive. STOP IT.
is how many of these drivers were ghetto driving? How many thought they were being cool by stiff-arming the steering wheel or rolling their wrists over the top of the wheel?
In addition to the obvious distraction of trying to follow a conversation on a cell phone while driving, or trying to text and drive, one needs to take into consideration the near complete lack of stability one has when ghetto driving.
When you add in that factor, the danger factor increases tremendously.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Back in my day, voice activated texting was called making a call!
Why not just call the person? //but NOT in the car!
The trick is to break focus as little as possible (facebook should have a driving game of some sort).
and of course realize that 100% focus is a GOAL not a requirement.
All Y'all round here in the auto/ai field we need KITT invented!
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tether the bear to the car seat (and when the kid is old enough tether the bear to the kid directly)
or get very smart and have somebody old enough riding (err what do you call the seat behind the "shotgun" seat) to handle
"Mommy|Daddy|Caretaker doesn't want to wrap the car around a telephone pole" type things.
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Why would it not be common-sense obvious that it rarely-if-ever matters if you're holding the phone to your ear.
Are you concentrating and distracted by holding the phone to your ear? No, you're concentrating on the conversation you're having. It doesn't take getting into an accident to figure that out.
I wonder if one contrasts the number of cell phone drivers to two way radio users (including police, fire, utility [if they do anymore], and amateur radio) per capita if there is a difference in accident rates?
Me, I was taught to always respect the driving first and anything else second. I can chat along on my amateur radio, or when I was a Security Officer on the truck radio, in most driving conditions. I'm smart enough to keep focus on my driving. I'm happy with telling someone, "Just a minute..." and then explain I had to pay immediate attention to the traffic. It is harder-if-not-impossible to do that with voice-to-text, though it is possible on any voice cell call. The only accident I ever had while I was talking on my radio was when the guy behind me rear-ended me at a stop sign, and I saw him coming and had no defensive action I could take. (It was nice back in the day because the person I was talking to called the Sherriff's office and my parents for me.)
Cell phones were around much longer than when distracted driving started to become a problem. What did we do back in the 80s when hands-free didn't exist?
If we criminalize all this crap, then why not criminalize eating in one's car, drinking coffee, or any other action which can potentially distract a driver from driving? Oh, yeah, common sense.
re: Distracted driving is distracted driving.
.
Yes! The Brady Bunch just had an episode about this over the weekend (well, I guess it's a re-re-re-re-re^{20}-run of a 1970's episode of the Brady Bunch) where Greg Brady almost rear-ends someone on the freeway because he's busy reading the back of a record album he's just purchased! He get's caught because little brother Bobby proudly exclaims how good a driver big brother is in being able to avoid rear ending that truck on the road! So there's no need to specifically blame texting or cell phones. People are just as distracted with radio dials, CD's falling of the seat, hamburgers they're eating, or makeup or maps or newpapers.