New Study Finds Siri More Distracting Than Google Now While Driving

Really surprised to not see Honda/Acura on there. Huge manufacturer.

The voice guidance on their cars is horrendous and I wouldn't be surprised to see it dead last. No wonder they switched to Carplay/Android Auto. Too bad our '15 TLX won't get either.
 
sputnikv said:
I would suspect so, given how poorly and inconstant it works.
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That's exactly my experience. When Siri does work well, it's not a problem (which ties in with the importance of CarPlay). But Siri with the pathetic "smart" radio in my car is really balky. More often then not I'll just turn it off.
 
Me: "Play songs from Abba"
Siri: "..."
Me: (louder) "Play songs from Abba!"
Siri: "... (15 second silence) I'm sorry but [bla bla bla can't hear what she said]"
Me: "Just play random songs"
Siri: "Calling Mom"
Me: (Takes eyes of road, grabs phone, cancels phone call)
 
I rarely use any voice-activated system in my car, Siri or Google Now, because they both can be distracting.

Having said that, I've found Google Now to be slightly more responsive, and it's far easier for me to say "OK Google, text (my wife, mobile phone), I am on my way home" and I don't even have to look down to know it's transcribed correctly. Siri was never that accurate for me. I think Siri just doesn't like fast-talking NJ peeps.
 
I don't put much value into these types of studies. Every person has different thresholds that they can multitask at and without familiarity with the system being tested all are extremely distracting. This is why pilots train on the avionic systems they will be using in simulators and on computers.

I have a CarPlay deck and really enjoy it. While I find using Siri much safer than scanning through the 200 SiriusXM channels that came with my vehicle's stock deck, CarPlay can still be too distracting if used improperly.
 
IMO, I think it has more to do with Siri not reading the entire results. For instance, "I found a number of Chinese restaurants. 10 are closest to you." I mean, what can do with that while driving?

And, it shouldn't automatically initiate things like making a phone call. Ask for confirmation first.

Siri needs to better mimic a passenger holding an iPhone.
 
jwdsail said:
2. What additional distractions are introduced by all the testing equipment?
[...]
Yes, the addition of all that crap does't skew the results *at all* ;-) That couldn't be distracting while driving.. nope. Sigh.
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Actually no, it shouldn't skew the results. This is because the results are normalised with a "baseline measurement" of a very easy task which represent value "1" on the scale (the minimum cognitive distraction) and a measurement of an artificial super-challenging task which represents value "5" (the maximum cognitive distraction). All other measurements are relative to these 2 values.
 
Don't worry. CarPlay 2 will solve it. But you will have to purchase a new car that includes CarPlay 2 or rip out your current system and put in an after market solution.
 
Jakexb said:
What the heck is going on in the Mazda 6 that it's so distracting?
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Sometimes pandora will play audio through the phone speaker instead of the car speakers. This happens when my phone is connected via bluetooth and I plug it in to usb to charge it. The only way to fix it is to turn the car off and back on.

If I set the car to use my phone for phone calls and my girlfriend's phone for music, it will forget that the moment I turn the car off and it has to be reset every single time.

Sometimes when I start the car it will automatically start playing pandora, sometimes it will continue playing my audiobook, it seems to be kinda random.

If I pause my audio book, then ask Siri something, as soon as Siri finishes responding it unpauses the book (this might be the fault of the iphone rather than the car, not sure). This can be annoying when I am asking Siri multiple things and have to keep pausing the book.

Incredibly distracting. Aside from a couple annoying issues like this, I love the car.
 
This field is a constantly shifting target. I'd look to studies of this sort as a spur to improvement, rather than an indictment or endorsement of any one system.

In my own, limited experience... The Bluetooth/voice response system built into my 2012 Nissan was awful - any attempt to place a call by voice command resulted not only in distraction, but mild road rage. There was near-zero integration with my iPhone. A year later, in my father's 2013 Nissan... the Nissan-provided Bluetooth calling features were still awful, but integration with iPhone was good enough that Siri could take over (all it takes is pressing the Home button) - and Siri has been remarkably good. Near-zero error or frustration for names on my Favorites list, and simple commands like "Play music" work fine. I'll wait a while longer before giving her complex commands, but that's OK. Modest expectations are still delivering satisfying results and very little distraction.

I suspect in another five years, "friends and family in the car" will rank as a much larger hazard than any these systems. While I'm constantly worried about my aging father's exploits behind the wheel, I suspect in 20 years' time my kids will have far fewer worries - Siri and her siblings will be far less likely to be distracted, will have far better anticipatory and reactive responses than 99% of human drivers, and there will be enough vehicles deployed with these systems that the occasional loose nut will be given a wide berth (systems will detect human-like driving patterns and keep a safer distance).
 
When I ask Siri for a song, I either get:
1) Play "not the song I asked for at all" (sometimes, this is entertaining...)
2) Late "the song I asked"
3) Plate "the song I asked"

And I do speak very carefully when talking to that retarded *****...
 
airb330 said:
Really surprised to not see Honda/Acura on there. Huge manufacturer.

The voice guidance on their cars is horrendous and I wouldn't be surprised to see it dead last. No wonder they switched to Carplay/Android Auto. Too bad our '15 TLX won't get either.
Click to expand...

I agree. I just got an 2015 Acura and the built in voice recognition is somehow MUCH worse than my 2005 Acura. I was shocked. The system in 2005 was fairly new...but the voice recognition was really good. The current version is unusable. Which is too bad - voice recognition in the Navi system would be fantastic. Or at least have an efficient way to send address/place names from your phone to the car.
 
It would have been nice for Apple to at least give iPhone 6/6+ users the ability to toggle "Hey, Siri" on when the phone is unplugged. I know the battery life would take a hit on those phones but the battery life already takes a hit when people do other things with their phones (i.e. install the Facebook app or spend a prolonged period of time in an area with poor cellular reception).

Making "Hey, Siri" when the phone is not plugged in compatible with older iPhones would've been one thing Apple could've done to try to curb distracted driving on a larger scale. It's a shame that they insist that we all buy new iPhones to get the feature instead.
 
I tried to use Siri but it feels like 80's technology... like a good try. Forget about looking for a song. If you can not find a song the technology is useless. And lets not talk about an address. I always end up pulling to the side of the road and typing stuff.
 
txpilot82 said:
I don't put much value into these types of studies. Every person has different thresholds that they can multitask at and without familiarity with the system being tested all are extremely distracting. This is why pilots train on the avionic systems they will be using in simulators and on computers.

I have a CarPlay deck and really enjoy it. While I find using Siri much safer than scanning through the 200 SiriusXM channels that came with my vehicle's stock deck, CarPlay can still be too distracting if used improperly.
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problem is that almost everyone believes to be better than all the others in multitasking and so this kind of studies is not addressed to him/her.
 
This doesn't surprise me.

All voice-activated computers are a pain in the posterior. There are too many automated messages in this world. Please, some kind hacker, destroy all voice announcements in lifts, stations, trains, cars, shops etc.
 
reden said:
I've found Siri to be most useful for setting up appointments and reminders, and it works about 95% of the time. For everything else it gets distracting because it just doesn't get it and I find myself repeating my command.
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Yup. I ask her what the temperature outside is and she says no devices are connected. Huh? Why would you need a HomeKit tstat to find out the weather??
 
Makosuke said:
I don't know about comparing Google Now to Siri--they're both in the same range--but overall these results are not surprising.

That said, it's tremendously handy to be able to ask Siri something like "Give me directions to the nearest Dairy Queen" when in an unfamiliar city and be able to get navigation going without ever taking your eyes off the road. It's still of course a little distracting, since there is some cognitive load involved in doing anything, but it works quite well for that kind of simple, practical query, and I suspect if I had a CarPlay system with a decent microphone that I could activate from the steering wheel it would be even smoother.

I can't wait for aftermarket CarPlay units to come down a bit more in price--I can't justify replacing a perfectly good Pioneer unit, but I really want one.
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I find asking siri for directions the most frustrating thing because it never gives me directions to the place I actually want to go on the first try. Sometimes I have to try twice, by the time the third time rolls around I just type it into the google maps app which never fails to understand what I want
 
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