A study of the car voice command systems by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety as part of an ongoing study of driving with eyes- and hands-free systems found them as actually "distracting" instead of helping.
Hence, drivers should stop talking to their cars and think twice before dictating a text to Siri. The study was published Thursday, and caused a doubt on the safety of voice-activated tech in new cars, according to a post in The New York Times.
Car voice command systems are aimed to help and provide more safety, rather than driving while texting and calling, but the AAA study found they do not serve their purpose yet.
According to neuroscientist David Strayer at the University of Utah, voice technology takes an amount of brainpower as "balancing a checkbook."
Car voice command systems developed by auto makers, as well as solutions from tech firms like Apple, Google and Microsoft, were assessed by AAA and were found potentially dangerous distractions, even with top performers which are "moderately distracting" like Buick Lacrosse, Toyota 4Runner an Chevy Equinox.
The evaluation included using car voice command systems to change music and make calls while driving.
Rankings were "mild," "moderate," "high" and "very high." Google Now proved least detrimental among all three smartphones solutions. It got a score of 3.0, followed by 3.4 by Siri and Cortana, 3.8 or categorized as "very high distraction."
In sending voice activated texts, Google Now is first with 3.3 distraction while Siri and Cortana rated 3.7 and 4.1 distractions, reported Apple Insider.
"The lasting effects of mental distraction pose a hidden and pervasive danger that would likely come as a surprise to most drivers," AAA CEO Peter Kissinger said. "The results indicate that motorists could miss stop signs, pedestrians and other vehicles while the mind is readjusting to the task of driving."
The study also found that a driver can be distracted mentally for 27 seconds the longest, after performing a hands-free task. It is like driving at 25 miles per hour of nearly three football fields, before gaining back his full cognitive ability. Last year, Siri on iOS 7 was found highly distracting, and this year seems the same.
Among 10 different voice-activated systems, found the most distracting was Mazda 6 system, then Microsoft's Cortana while Siri was found "high distracting."
