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Based on the b-roll video footage, it looks like most of the distractions are caused by the inaccuracies in the system causing the driver to get frustrated with it.
 
Ouch on the Mazda 6. Shame, because it's a great car.
Yeah, I have a Mazda 3 and I love it... I'm hoping that they update the system for CarPlay support. Supposedly, CarPlay lines of code have been found on recent builds of the Mazda infotainment system.
 
Sample size of 65!?! LOL. Talk about pointless, and laughable that they would even publish or announce their results. The most they should or could have said is that 'based on our study all of these voice-activated systems, all of them are distracting.' Also, this study doesn't account for 'Hey, Siri' or Carplay.
 
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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)
Siri couldn't properly work in the car to save its life.

(at least for me, the car I drive and well... MY LANGUAGE. It's really fun to ask for songs (most have English names) and Siri expects a German word almost all the time. I wish Siri was smarter about picking up languages... Same goes for the keyboard and spell checking. I mean, my Mac can seamlessly detect the language I write in without me having to flick a switch, why can't the spell checker of my "smart"phone do the same?
I set my English and German keyboard to QWERTZ, why not just have one and then go with language-detection? Sorry... end of off-topic)

Glassed Silver:mac
 
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Siri will never be as "good" as Google Now because Apple doesn't mine your data as intrusively as Google does.

That's an easy out. It has nothing to do with the 'intelligent' responses Google provides. It's the MUCH better voice recognition coupled with looking for an appropriate response. Google Now is extremely accurate of writing out your voice commands in real time and giving a response. Siri will pause...then often spit back something different than what you asked/said. When it can't even get the voice recognition part right...it has little chance of getting the rest of it right.
 
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It just baffles me how stupid Siri has become. She was context aware when she was released, but it seems to be going downhill. Or maybe my expectations have evolved, and Siri hasn't.
- directions to the next appointment. Forget it.
- changing the content of an iMessage after she misheard you. No way. I'm sure she could do that before (?)
- adding a reminder for a photo you took of something you want to buy or do. Can't do that.
- understanding names for my contacts. Still a huge issue.

In the car, she's a lethal weapon, beyond distracting. I'm surprised she hasn't caused any car accidents yet.

For me, in 4 years she still hasn't become any more useful than setting my alarm clock. And she had so much potential.
 
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Siri is a gimmick Apple routinely programs to say cute rather stupid things to entertain

Google Now awaits commands and doesn't pretend to be a virtual comic or companion

Best way to describe Google Now and how it works. I find it to be incredibly accurate vs. Siri or Cortana. And the fact that it doesn't act on a conversation or ask additional questions like Siri does is awesome!
 
Coming from someone who's used both iOS & Android devices I'd have to agree. Google Now is a lot more helpful and gives a lot more detail than Siri. At this point if I could replace Siri with Google Now as the iOS system's digital assistant I would. Apple really needs to get on the ball with giving Siri a serious upgrade. Even Microsoft's Cortana is giving Siri a run for her money.
 
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.

True. And even the same person can be capable of running one of these systems safely on a Sunday drive but be unsafe on a work day when they are driving into the office about to give a crucial presentation.
 
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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.

That is all well and good, I suppose. Except for one thing. It assumes a *linear* progression for distraction, frustration, etc. From the start, the test has introduced several additional sources of distraction, including things physically on the drivers body, that by themselves, I would find more distracting than answering a phone call, or the radio playing.

Some of these same types of motor vehicle safety tests, have shown that additional sources of distraction decrease ability non-linearly... It's usually exponentially. Adding additional passengers when there's a teen driver for example. The effects have been shown to be quite non-linear in that case in both controlled tests and real world statistics.

Perhaps for the purpose of the tests in question, this doesn't skew the results? Hard to believe, but certainly possible.
 
Strange, Siri seems to work really well for me. But then I don't use my cell phone in the car. Could be the road noise causes issues. I have a Garmin GPS that is voice activated, and it rarely works unless the car is very quite, like standing still.
 
After being a lifelong iPhone user I gave up on Apple after the series of rehashed and frankly tired design of the interface. Siri was also one of the reasons for that hard decision too. Now I have a 128gb Samsung S6 Edge - for a third less than the 6S. I have to agree with many in here. OK Google is demonstrably superior in every way. And I also can use Samsung S-Voice. The latter being better than Siri but not as good as Google. However the female voice on there sounds so bored and disinterested it makes me laugh so much I make a point of using it to cheer myself up! :-D
 
Ouch on the Mazda 6. Shame, because it's a great car.
I guess the voice activation system must have changed. I have a 2010 mazda 3. I don't get how it could be considered distracting at all.

I mean, I push the steering wheel call button and it says "name please". Then repeats the name of the person it's going to call -- for your confirmation. You can even turn off confirmation, if you want. That's it, moreover, everything else is disabled, if the car is moving -- even gets cancelled, when the car starts to move.
 
I used to use Siri all the time to quickly switch songs when my hands are mostly occupied (think biking, walking with groceries, etc.) but lately all it does is tell me that "I couldn't find (random song I've never heard of) by (artist I've never heard of) in your music, would you like me to play a radio based on that song?".
 
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I suspect the people who can't press a button and say "Hey, Siri [insert command here]" without driving through a stop sign are the same people who are causing my car insurance rate to go up in Illinois year after year.

No, those are the ones who get a rather expensive ticket in Cali for just having it in hand.
 
is this because siri can't understand u fully every time ?

Its better than yelling at your mate...

Siri can't argue with you :) GPS does this ,,, the re-routung is good, but when i KNOW where i am enough to get back i still don't need some annoying little terd in the background saying "Your destination is on the right"....

ya i know where i live...it's my house after all ... Usually i just ignore the rest...

I figure if u can just block out what u *don't* want to hear anyway, then it doesn't really matter which is more accurate... however if u rely on it, then ya its just damn irritating at times.
 
I'd like to see how using Siri on the phone compares to using it via the appLe watch for these tests.
 
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