Voice-to-text as distracting as texting is
The intent of voice-to-text technology is to make texting while driving safer but according to a new study it might prove to actually be as distracting as using a hand-held device is.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Utah for US consumer group AAA, and it found that drivers will exhibit a similar level of distraction when using hands-free voice-to-text technology to send text messages as they would when actually physically typing text with their hands, a rather interesting discovery to say the least.
The researchers studied 150 drivers with an average age of 24 and an average of seven years driving experience. They wore brain sensors and drove a modified vehicle while being asked to perform a series of tasks such as using a hand-held phone, using voice-to text technology and also completing a test created by psychologists to measure brain function.
The study revealed that drivers using the voice-to-text showed many signs of being distracted such as reaction times that were as slow as when they were using a hand-held device. When using voice-to-text technology, drivers also made fewer visual checks to observe their surroundings in normal driving conditions.
The lead author of the study, University of Utah psychology professor David Strayer, concluded the study in a statement saying that ‘hands-free is not risk-free’.
The new speech-based technologies that are being equipped into modern cars – in order to make driving safer – actually turn out to overload the driver’s attention and impair their ability to drive safely, quite the interesting paradox.
According to AAA president Robert Darbelnet, the likely future proliferation of these speech-based in-vehicle technologies threaten to become a ‘public safety crisis’.
He continue to say that considering limiting these new and potentially dangerous mental distractions that are being increasingly built into more and more vehicles, especially considering the very common public misperception that hands-free means risk-free.
