For Greene County News
MIAMI VALLEY — Groundbreaking research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reveals that the distraction drivers experience using voice activated technology – or their smartphones – to make a call, change music or send a text can linger for almost 30 seconds after the task is complete.
“This should be a wakeup call to anyone who feels safe texting while sitting at a red light,” AAA Driving School Operations Manager Michael Belcuore said. “Just because you can hit the gas when the light turns green, doesn’t mean you’re good to go.”
Researchers studying different push to talk technologies found that potentially unsafe levels of mental distraction lasted for as long as 27 seconds after completing a task in the worst-performing systems. And, at the 25 MPH speed limit in the study, drivers traveled the length of nearly three football fields during this time. Using the least distracting systems, drivers still remained impaired for more than 15 seconds.
The researchers discovered the residual effects of mental distraction while comparing the voice activated technology in ten 2015 vehicles and three types of smart phones. The analysis found that all systems studied increased mental distraction to potentially unsafe levels.
Researchers rated driver distraction on a scale of one to five, with one being relatively safe, about equal to listening to the radio, and five being highly challenging in such a way as to overload the driver’s attention. The best performing system was the Chevy Equinox with a cognitive distraction rating of 2.4, while the worst performing system was the Mazda 6 with a cognitive distraction rating of 4.6.
The systems that performed best generally had fewer errors, required less time on task and were relatively easy to use.
The researchers also studied voice activated smartphone technology and found that Google Now outperformed Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana but, they say, all were dangerously distracting with ratings of 3.1, 3.4 and 3.8, respectively.
“Automakers often promote everything their connected cars can do, but this research paints a frightening picture of what drivers can’t do if they use the popular features,” Belcuore said. “Hands free does not mean risk free – it’s that simple”.
Dr. David Strayer and Dr. Joel Cooper of the University of Utah conducted the research. A total of 257 drivers ages 21 to 70 participated in the study of 2015 model-year vehicles, while 65 additional drivers ages 21 to 68 tested the three phone systems. Over the last two weeks, AAA has shared its findings with policymakers, safety advocates and manufacturers in hopes of improving the safety of future technology.
