WASHINGTON: If you think it's okay to talk to their information systems and car entertainment or smartphone while driving then think again. New research has found that it takes up to 27 seconds to recover all the attention after issuing voice commands.
University of Utah researchers conducted two studies to traffic safety AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety charity. One study showed that it is very annoying to use hands-free voice commands to dial phone numbers, contact calls, change the music and send text with Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri and Google Now smartphone personal assistants.
In another study, they examined-voice dialing, voice calling and music selection using the contact information on the vehicles or infotainment systems "" 10 model year 2015 vehicles.
Three were rated moderately distracting six as very annoying and one very highly annoying, said traffic safety non-profit based in the United States in a report.
"The fact that these systems are in the car, does not mean it's a good idea to use them while driving," said lead author of both studies David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah.
"It is better not to use them when you are driving," Strayer said.
The research also found that, contrary to what some may believe, practice with voice recognition systems does not eliminate the distraction.
But the most surprising finding was that a driver who travels only 25 mph still distracted for up to 27 seconds after disconnecting systems highly distracted by voice command phone and car, and up to 15 seconds after disconnecting moderately systems distracting.
27 seconds means a driver traveling 25 mph cover the length of three football fields before recovering all the attention.
"Most people think, 'hang up and I'm good to go,'" Strayer said.
"But that's not the case. We see that it takes a surprisingly long to return to mindfulness time. Even sending a short text message can cause nearly 30 more seconds of impaired attention," Strayer said in a statement released by the University of Utah on Wednesday.
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