Study Finds Voice-to-Text Apps Don't Increase Driver Safety

Andrea Smith2013-04-24 00:00:23 UTC

In an effort to be a safer driver, many people, myself included, have started using voice-to-text mobile apps like Siri to keep two hands on the steering wheel.

However, a new study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute finds using voice-to-text apps to send and receive text messages while driving don't increase driver safety.

Christine Yager, who headed up the research, tells Mashable there were no distinguishable differences between manual texters and voice texters.

"We did not find any differences between manual texting and the two voice-to-text apps that we tested in terms of driver response time and the amount of time looking at the forward roadway."

The study [PDF] is the first to compare voice-to-text and manual texting on a handheld device on the road.

Researchers — testing participants driving an actual vehicle on a closed course — had drivers use one of two mobile voice-to-text apps, Siri for iPhone and Vlingo for Android. They first asked the drivers to go through the course without any mobile phone use. Participants then drove the course three more times, once using each of the two voice-to-text applications, and one texting manually on a phone.

Yager says there was no difference between the texting methods that were used; the manual texting and both voice texting apps were equally as distracting.

The goal of the study, she says, is not to say don't use Siri, but to caution and educate drivers about the dangers of texting while driving. (We've seen numerous stories of drivers who've lost control of their car while texting.)

The study shows even formulating and dictating a message takes concentration away from the driving task at hand. "The amount of time that drivers spent looking at the roadway ahead was significantly less when they were texting, no matter which texting method was used."

Yager says if a texting driver is watching the road less often, then that driver is less able to take action when faced with something like a road hazard or a pedestrian.

The real issue may be that drivers seem to believe they’re being more careful when they use the voice-to-text apps even though they appear to offer no real safety advantage over manual texting.

The study found "drivers felt less safe when they were texting, but felt safer when using a voice-to-text application than when texting manually." So, even though we feel like we're doing the right thing by using an app, driving performance suffered with both methods.

And it's not just texting that distracts drivers. A California court ruled last month that checking GPS maps on your phone while driving is a violation of the state’s distracted driving law.

The new study is published in part to raise awareness during National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sjlocke

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