Hands-Free Siri Interactions Result in Highest Levels of Mental Distraction While Driving

UpperQuadrant · Oct 8, 2014

I'm wondering how much time these people had to ramp up their familiarity with the product they were being tested on. That will have a significant impact on the test results. Unfamiliarity with a product that they aren't familiar with in the first place takes time getting used to. I would like to see this test done on people over the course of 6 months as the people use the product on a continual basis and then compare results.

Heck, some of the cars they are selling nowadays have so many knobs, dials, switches, software, etc., that it can take months just getting used to dealing with simple things.

it doesn't surprise me that this auto technology they are using would take some time getting used to, but I think they need to give these people more time.

Now, I hate driving and being on a cell phone. My last car I had a built in system and that was cool, but I didn't use it every day because I simply hate being on a cell phone while I'm driving, just like I hate taking or making a phone call while on a date or eating a meal, or doing something else that requires my attention.

But for cars, in general, they have to test the crap out of the product and have a lot of data to support that the product is easy to use and doesn't distract the driver. That's important. I just think maybe they need to give the test subjects more time to get familiar with the product and to show what the learning curve is, if the product is still distracting, then they need to work on the product to improve it's ease of use.

neuropsychguy · Oct 8, 2014

While they are going after distractions, they should ban eating while driving, driving with kids in the car, talking while driving, singing along with music while driving, driving in unfamiliar settings, putting on makeup or shaving while driving, etc...

twoehr · Oct 8, 2014

Until Siri is compared to another "hands free" voice only system with no visual indicators I'd say that it may not be the product, but the paradigm. Using voice only command system with only audio feedback will be most unusual to people. Even Siri on the iOS device provides visual feedback. It will be a learning curve for it to become normal.

Avatar74 · Oct 8, 2014

UpperQuadrant said:
I'm wondering how much time these people had to ramp up their familiarity with the product they were being tested on. That will have a significant impact on the test results. Unfamiliarity with a product that they aren't familiar with in the first place takes time getting used to.

That's the point. It still presents a tangible risk for new car buyers and since this is a new UI arrangement with some differences in functionality, there exists the potential for a lot of accidents the moment all these new cars are driven off the lot.

Since this is a growth business, it's not feasible to limit such a study to existing users... and even then, existing users are not all "power users".

But, case in point: Most drivers with cell phones know how to use their cell phones. It's not the operation of a device itself that presents the highest risk. In these types of studies the largest factor is the cognitive distraction about thinking and processing information you're giving and receiving.

Even talking to others in the car poses a risk, because you're not always aware of just how much information you as a driver are processing at any given moment.

Driving may seem like a simple task because we do it in enclosed vehicles with suspension and other systems that make it seem slower than it is, but ride a bicycle at around 20mph on a busy street to get a sense of how fast that really is. It's an activity that far too many drivers do not take seriously as something that really demands your full attention until you reach your destination... and doubly so when there are passengers depending on you.

I'm as guilty as the next person of being distracted... but I'll acknowledge that and say you should set your music on shuffle before you drive and stop fiddling around with gadgets and crap and concentrate on the fact that you are operating a 3000-4000lb moving projectile at high speed.

That phone call or website can wait.... If it can't, you've got time management problems. You'll have a lot more time management problems if you seriously injure yourself, your passengers, a pedestrian or other driver.

Mad-B-One · Oct 8, 2014

Simple fail test:

Ask Siri on language and units set for US:

"What is the current temperature in Celsius?"

Siri:

"It is X degrees Fahrenheit."

Well thank you Siri, you fail.

Another one:

"Will it rain tonight?" (Forecast in built-in Yahoo: Rain at 2PM 80%, chance)

"There is no rain in the forecast for tonight."

Apparently, Siri's "night" ends at midnight. Well, I get up in the morning though and my car windows need to be closed when it rains...

Also, I work for Cameron University in Lawton.

"Siri, navigate to Cameron University in Lawton." (has about 10k students)

"Route set for Cameron Measurements, Inc. in Duncan." (Duncan is 35 miles from Lawton and has about 100 employees max...

Failed again...

PS: Every time, Siri understood me perfectly. The heuristics of the information processing fails just miserably.

Mad-B-One · Oct 8, 2014

UpperQuadrant said:
I'm wondering how much time these people had to ramp up their familiarity with the product they were being tested on. That will have a significant impact on the test results. Unfamiliarity with a product that they aren't familiar with in the first place takes time getting used to. I would like to see this test done on people over the course of 6 months as the people use the product on a continual basis and then compare results.

Heck, some of the cars they are selling nowadays have so many knobs, dials, switches, software, etc., that it can take months just getting used to dealing with simple things.

it doesn't surprise me that this auto technology they are using would take some time getting used to, but I think they need to give these people more time.

Now, I hate driving and being on a cell phone. My last car I had a built in system and that was cool, but I didn't use it every day because I simply hate being on a cell phone while I'm driving, just like I hate taking or making a phone call while on a date or eating a meal, or doing something else that requires my attention.

But for cars, in general, they have to test the crap out of the product and have a lot of data to support that the product is easy to use and doesn't distract the driver. That's important. I just think maybe they need to give the test subjects more time to get familiar with the product and to show what the learning curve is, if the product is still distracting, then they need to work on the product to improve it's ease of use.

Or...

it is the other way round. Example: BMW's iDrive (oh yea, they had the "i" before Apple started the iPhone but after iMac) It was a disaster because they tried to put everything on one knob. Ergonomics? No, thanks!

So, if the system is not ergonomic and intuitive, the system has to change, not the average user. See my comment above about the simple fails. BMW scrapped the original idea and learned and adapted their system. Apple will have to do the same if they want to succeed. Just imagine a map that does not show the correct layout of I40 through a state capital for years after construction is finished... like Apple Maps in Oklahoma City... You see my point? It is the system that is not working, not the user that has to work on it. Siri is at times counter-intuitive. It does not remember what information it just gave you. Try it. Ask Siri what the phone number for a certain business is. When/if it finds it, it will be displayed. Then ask Siri to call "that number" Answer: "What number do you want me to call?" Really? That's just BS.

caseyfriday · Oct 8, 2014

sk1wbw said:
And you're the reason there's road rage. If you're stopped at a stop light, you can't get into an accident. Stop being the police.

Honking to inform you the light is green is not even close to "being the police". You're telling me to let you sit there while the light cycles from Green to Red, just so you can avoid getting ragey that someone had the audacity to notify you you're holding up traffic?

Just put down the phone.

Lictor · Oct 8, 2014

UpperQuadrant said:
Unfamiliarity with a product that they aren't familiar with in the first place takes time getting used to. I would like to see this test done on people over the course of 6 months as the people use the product on a continual basis and then compare results.

If you need six months to become familiar with a technology, that technology is a user experience failure. Seriously.
Take the iPhone. You can give it to people and they're playing with it minutes later. On the other hand, my mother has had a blackberry for a year, and many of its functions are still a mystery to her. The iPhone was a huge UX success - and that's why tactile smartphones are now the norm.

I'm sorry, but if you need six months to use Siri on a car, it means that you're adapting to the product rather than having a product that fits your needs. And that's bad. Especially when considering a product used in a car - you can't afford to risk your life for six months before having rewired your brain to fit the product.

Heck, some of the cars they are selling nowadays have so many knobs, dials, switches, software, etc., that it can take months just getting used to dealing with simple things.

Yes, and that's truly awful UX. Especially considering that the interface of a car should aim to disappear in order to let the driver focus on driving. For instance, I'm still surprised we don't have head-up display on cars or more use of haptic feedback.
But nowadays, car designers seem to think that their job is about being visible with tons of displays, lights and knobs...

I just think maybe they need to give the test subjects more time to get familiar with the product and to show what the learning curve is

More and more people don't own a car, they just rent a car when they need one - for instance, we just rent a car when we're on holidays in the country, and that's for two weeks at most. We also have cities where you have short duration car renting (just like with bikes in New-York). For instance, I can rent an electric car for 20 minutes. You can't afford to have any learning curve in these use cases...
Likewise, you have many people in cities who use public transports daily and will only use their cars now and then. You can't rely on a learning curve for these people, because they will forget...

You just need to have cars interface with good transparent and intuitive UX and no learning curves for the most common operations... Just like what tactile brought to the smartphone experience...

sk1wbw · Oct 9, 2014

caseyfriday said:
Honking to inform you the light is green is not even close to "being the police". You're telling me to let you sit there while the light cycles from Green to Red, just so you can avoid getting ragey that someone had the audacity to notify you you're holding up traffic?

Just put down the phone.

You don't have to be using a cell phone to not notice the light turn green. You didn't mention that tidbit in your first post. Don't worry about other people.

caseyfriday · Oct 9, 2014

sk1wbw said:
You don't have to be using a cell phone to not notice the light turn green. You didn't mention that tidbit in your first post. Don't worry about other people.

Nope.

unplugme71 · Oct 9, 2014

MentalFloss said:
Fact: It is illegal to punch someone in the face.

Reaction (blown out of proportion): Soon it will be illegal to initiate any form of human interaction. Touching, speaking, even just a smile.

Its not illegal. I punch people in the face all the time. All I get is yelled at or punched back.

tongxinshe · Oct 9, 2014

Lictor said:
Now, can you imagine their driving if they were chatting or texting on their phones on top of that?

All of these talks become irrelevant if only those with professional driving skills are allowed to drive on the public roads. Also, by doing that, the traffic will vastly improve even there are the same amount of cars as nowadays.

RedRaven571 · Oct 9, 2014

unplugme71 said:
Its not illegal. I punch people in the face all the time. All I get is yelled at or punched back.

At the risk of getting punched in the face

, yes, it is illegal.

Actually, it's illegal to throw a punch (without it connecting), this is assault; when the punch connects, it is battery. Together, they are assault and battery.

Where do you live? Where I live, middle-school kids can't even punch each other without the cops getting called.....

BTW, punching people while driving is VERY distracting....

danpass · Oct 9, 2014

Siri has been a dud for me 90% of the time I use it.

How often do I use it?

Once a month, if that.

Why?

Because that one time I use it, totally random, no special conditions ..... it tells me it can't do that right now.

I was walking around in the deli today and I figured I would give it a shot: "what is havarti cheese"

After an interminable delay of literally 20 seconds it comes back with that useless message.

This dependence on the network for its functionality is plain stupid.

I fire up safari and a a quick google search tells me what I want to know.

_

jackufc · Oct 10, 2014

verniesgarden said:
lesson is, put your phone away and drive

agreed.! and if you need to use the phone whilst driving.. pull over.

safety should always come first

calzon65 · Oct 12, 2014

(sarcasm on)

But wait ... I don't understand something

I thought Apple stuff "just works", I thought Apple technology is "infallible" and we are better with it than without it. I mean isn't Apple a loving, hip, cool company that is looking out for our best interests, is concerned for the environment, little children and our personal safety. Is this study saying Apple, through its CarPlay and Siri technology, is encouraging the use of potentially dangerous technology that might cause a material amount of distraction while driving while putting people (drivers, passengers, other drivers, and bystanders) at risk?

How can this be, how could a loving company that likes to imply "we know better, you just need to trust us" give us this potential "loaded gun". Would it be irresponsible for a company to develop and evangelize a distracting technology, engineered specifically to be used in cars while driving, and put it in the hands of unsuspecting consumers. I wonder if we should not be using these technologies while driving, and if that's true, I wonder if cars should even be outfitted with something like CarPlay.

Please Apple, tell us it ain't so. Tell us the technologies you are selling us and encouraging us to use while driving are helping human kind and not putting people at risk. Tell us you would not do this to us

(sarcasm off)

tigress666 · Oct 12, 2014

verniesgarden said:
lesson is, put your phone away and drive

First response is the only one needed.

UpperQuadrant · Oct 12, 2014

calzon65 said:
(sarcasm on)

But wait ... I don't understand something

I thought Apple stuff "just works", I thought Apple technology is "infallible" and we are better with it than without it. I mean isn't Apple a loving, hip, cool company that is looking out for our best interests, is concerned for the environment, little children and our personal safety. Is this study saying Apple, through its CarPlay and Siri technology, is encouraging the use of potentially dangerous technology that might cause a material amount of distraction while driving while putting people (drivers, passengers, other drivers, and bystanders) at risk?

How can this be, how could a loving company that likes to imply "we know better, you just need to trust us" give us this potential "loaded gun". Would it be irresponsible for a company to develop and evangelize a distracting technology, engineered specifically to be used in cars while driving, and put it in the hands of unsuspecting consumers. I wonder if we should not be using these technologies while driving, and if that's true, I wonder if cars should even be outfitted with something like CarPlay.

Please Apple, tell us it ain't so. Tell us the technologies you are selling us and encouraging us to use while driving are helping human kind and not putting people at risk. Tell us you would not do this to us

(sarcasm off)

Here's the issue.... Car technology is STILL in the beginning stages and it's up to the car mfg and the technology partners to test and figure out how to implement this stuff so that it is easier to use and make us safer drivers. Or at least they should.

I don't know how much of this is Apple's fault, Pioneer's fault, etc. But there are a lot of different mfg making this sort of stuff for the cars ever since they put in the first Navigation system.

It would be interesting to see how ALL of them work when tested under similar conditions.

First off, I never owned a car with a Nav system in it, I've had a hands free phone and it worked great because it was tied to my stereo system and all I had to do was press a button or buttons on the dash to make or take a call, but I rarely made calls with it, but it was great to take a call while driving, because it automatically muted the stereo, etc. I wish I had the button on the steering wheel, but that came later.

With the rest of this stuff, I couldn't tell you what's actually useful and what isn't, plus there is that nasty little thing called getting familiar with a system.

If you aren't familiar with a system, then it's going to be a distraction in the beginning, so ease of use is VERY critical in the beginning stages of learning a system. Maybe the people being tested just weren't familiar with the system, that could be a reason since they could test people after a few hours to a few months to a few years of having daily experience with the system to figure out how much easier and less distracting these systems really are. So, I think that learning curve is going to be an issue for ALL of these companies to figure out.

Heck, just dealing with various companies implementation of cruise control varies from brand/model to brand/model, some work better than others. My GM car's cruise control sucked, but my Mercedes worked better.

I think people, after a while, get used to this stuff and becomes less of a distraction, but still they ALL have to figure out how to design this stuff and people have to learn how to use this stuff to then point where they aren't driving with lots of distractions.

Have you ever rented a car? How long does it take to get used to the layout of the dash and the heating/air conditioning, and the radio? Sometimes it can take a few days, but you only have a few minutes before you drive the rented car off the lot.

I think people and the companies will figure this stuff out and unfortunately, there might be some changes in the laws to ban or alter how things are done, just like they have previously when it comes to technology and cars.

UpperQuadrant · Oct 12, 2014

jackufc said:
agreed.! and if you need to use the phone whilst driving.. pull over.

safety should always come first

Yeah, I agree. For me personally, I don't have a problem with the phone in the car to make or take phone calls as long as the phone is tied into the system and you have the call button on the wheel to take a call, but if you know you are going to get into a long involved conversation, by all means, pull over and take the call and stop driving. But human behavior is typically in a state of denial, we all THINK we can do both, when we probably can't. It's like telling someone that's had a couple of drinks they shouldn't be driving, but they'll get into the car anyways, because they are in denial about their own abilities.

I think that car mfg should offer at least a 1 day driving course put on by professional safety drivers and really teach people how to use the crap in their car.

Many years ago, Mercedes offered this type of free course to all Mercedes owners, but the courses got too expensive and not all of the people took advantage of the courses, but now they charge customers and offer various safety driving courses, BMW and others offer these types of courses, but they aren't cheap, but I will tell you, DO IT. They will teach you better driving positions, give you REAL experience on using the AntiLock brakes, how to navigate around obstacles, etc. I think EVERYONE should go through these safety courses at least in the beginning when they first learn how to drive and maybe every 10 years or so. It's is by far one of the best things ANYONE can do to improve their driving, plus it's fun as hell.

But bottom line, it's not a wise idea to become reliant on smartphones, etc. while driving. Let your co-pilot do it, or just pull over if you find yourself looking off the road more than once for longer than 1 second.

With Siri and voice control, they are at least trying to get it so you can use voice commands vs typing things into the dashboard keypad, which should make it easier once you learn the system.

Keirasplace · Oct 12, 2014

calzon65 said:
(sarcasm on)

But wait ... I don't understand something

I thought Apple stuff "just works", I thought Apple technology is "infallible" and we are better with it than without it. I mean isn't Apple a loving, hip, cool company that is looking out for our best interests, is concerned for the environment, little children and our personal safety. Is this study saying Apple, through its CarPlay and Siri technology, is encouraging the use of potentially dangerous technology that might cause a material amount of distraction while driving while putting people (drivers, passengers, other drivers, and bystanders) at risk?

How can this be, how could a loving company that likes to imply "we know better, you just need to trust us" give us this potential "loaded gun". Would it be irresponsible for a company to develop and evangelize a distracting technology, engineered specifically to be used in cars while driving, and put it in the hands of unsuspecting consumers. I wonder if we should not be using these technologies while driving, and if that's true, I wonder if cars should even be outfitted with something like CarPlay.

Please Apple, tell us it ain't so. Tell us the technologies you are selling us and encouraging us to use while driving are helping human kind and not putting people at risk. Tell us you would not do this to us

(sarcasm off)

The thing is that all those technologies are distracting, especially initially when you learn about it. There is no "it just works" in the car. When driving, the very restricted things you do become automated and very routine, that's how your brain is able to react quickly.

Eventually, putting a call through Siri to a known number could become very routine and demand very little involvement from higher brain functions. But you will be distracted while this become automated. Once it is automated, the conversation itself would be distracting. There is no real escaping from this fact.

Everytime you have to "think about it" or are "thinking about something else", you lose reaction time regarding what is around you. That's how it is in a car and that's why I concentrate on the road, don't call or take calls and don't even like to listen to audiobooks, though listening to music is OK.

unplugme71 · Oct 13, 2014

RedRaven571 said:
At the risk of getting punched in the face , yes, it is illegal.

Actually, it's illegal to throw a punch (without it connecting), this is assault; when the punch connects, it is battery. Together, they are assault and battery.

Where do you live? Where I live, middle-school kids can't even punch each other without the cops getting called.....

BTW, punching people while driving is VERY distracting....

Well then my character in Legends of Zelda should be arrested for assualt and battery.

Hands-Free Siri Interactions Result in Highest Levels of Mental Distraction While Driving

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