AAA Warns Voice-to-Text Technology is Dangerous to Public Safety

With an announcement of what many may have already suspected, the triple-A auto club warned of a “public safety crisis” from voice command technology that allows drivers text and send emails.

According this article, “The head of Triple-A’s Foundation for Traffic Safety says when people are distracted by another task, they can develop what researchers call “inattention blindness.” They look straight ahead, but fail to see what’s in front of them — like red lights and pedestrians."

With more than 9 million cars and trucks on the road that have infotainment systems (and an expected 62 million vehicles by 2018), Triple-A is insisting that it is important for the technology to be used for "core driving tasks" -instead of making dinner reservations, updating Facebook, or purchasing movie tickets while driving. 

“There is a looming public safety crisis ahead with the future proliferation of these in-vehicle technologies. It’s time to consider limiting new and potentially dangerous mental distractions built into cars, particularly with the common public misperception that hands-free means risk-free,” said AAA President and CEO Robert L. Darbelnet.

According to this article, the Triple-A study is the most comprehensive of its kind and studied drivers' cognitive abilities and awareness as they performed different activities while driving. Listening to the radio was the least distracting, talking on a hands-free or handheld phone both had moderate risk, "and listening and responding to in-vehicle voice-activated email features rated as an extensive risk."

Which sort of makes sense, right? If you are using voice-activated technology to send an email to your boss, there is no doubt you are going to want to READ it (and, therefore, take your eyes of the road) to make sure the emails says what it is supposed to say and not something embarrassing. And the cognitive energy it takes to create that appropriate email may take more focus because your mouth moves faster than your hands can type meaning you have less of a filter...which may require more editing...which will require more thinking about what you're email says and not what is going on on the road.

However, some are not convinced by the Triple-A's study.

"According the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the study conducted by the team from the University of Utah and AAA could be misleading, claiming the study suggests hand-held and hands-free devices are equally risky. The Alliance wishes to wait for other academic studies to come out so a complete body of research can be reviewed.

"The AAA study focuses only on the cognitive aspects of using a device, and ignores the visual and manual aspects of hand-held versus integrated hands-free systems. There are many other academic studies under way, and road safety will be enhanced by letting the complete body of research drive policy recommendations,” said Wade Newton, Communications Director for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers."

What do you think? Do you think dashboard technology makes your driving safer or are you distracted even more?