Study Claims Using CarPlay While Driving is More Dangerous Than Texting

[ArtOfWarfare]

Sorry cant buy this. Using a voice assistant, no matter how bad, cannot be worse than texting.

I can send texts without looking at the phone... they'll only be around 50% accurate, but it's normally good enough for the person on the other end to understand.

I find siri completely unusable. I can't remember the last time I told her to do anything more complicated than setting a timer where she actually did what I wanted her to.

 

[Juicy Box]

I have used CarPlay since 2015, it used to be so buggy for me, and while it has gotten better over the years, there are still bugs that require me to touch my iPhone to correct.

I would say that if CarPlay and Siri worked perfectly 100% of the time, using it would be much safer than not having CarPlay.

But, with CP bugs, and Siri being useless sometimes when it comes to hands free, it isn't as safe as many people think it is.

 

[typ993]

Comparing CarPlay to driving at the alcohol legal limit (lower I'm sure in the UK) or cannabis impairment is kind of ridiculous. You are interacting with CarPlay or a phone for only a few moments, not continuously. With alcohol or cannabis, you are impaired 100% of the time. Granted, if that critical moment occurs while you are fiddling with CarPlay, yeah, you're screwed. Alcohol or MJ, you're just screwed period.

 

[Rocko99991]

But looking at this is no issue..

 

[rp2011]

Heck, the only time I’ve almost got in an accident I was fiddling with my old fashioned radio.

 

[H2SO4]

Since Siri cannot understand a simple request 80% of the time, I can understand how this could lead to a distracting environment. Attention is required to make sure the AI can understand your request, or transcribe a dictated message. There are also so many bugs in this system, it usually requires troubleshooting when using CarPlay.

Man she annoyed me the other day. Was really low on gas;
Me: Siri, how far is the nearest petrol station?
Siri: The nearest petrol station is xxxx services in xxxx... village.
Me: Hmmm.
Me: Siri, how far away is the nearest petrol station?
Siri: The nearest petrol station is xxxx services in xxxx... village.
Me: Siri, how many miles away is the nearest petrol station?
Siri: The nearest petrol station is xxxx services in xxxx... village.
Me: Grrrrrr.
Me: Alexa, how far is the nearest petrol station?
Alexa: The nearest petrol station is xxxx services in xxxx... village. It is 7.8Km away............

 

[Mr.Blacky]

I'm no car driver, but how often in real world scenarios are you searching for a specific song WHILE actively driving? Or using the touchscreen to navigate to an adress WHILE actively driving?
Also, aren't most touchscreen in cars really small and unresponsive?

 

[sterlingindigo]

Adjusting your radio and climate control setting and sneezing is also dangerous. We should all pull over.

 

[jjudson]

This is BS or the participants aren't using it right. I think a lot of folks don't use the handsfree aspect of texting or looking things up. The only trouble I've had with CarPlay has been the lack of good integration with some apps. There are apps that do make you dink around a lot more than you should to access stuff -- media apps like LiveXLive for example.

Stuff like this keeps Apple from doing smart stuff like integrating weather into their system. I've heard that they don't allow radar maps because they don't want distractions. There's way more distracting things than that in their interface.

 

[dewski]

Sorry cant buy this. Using a voice assistant, no matter how bad, cannot be worse than texting.

Just think about the time it takes. It takes 2 seconds to respond to a text and probably 20 seconds of arguing with siri to do the same thing.

 

[Rychiar]

the most dangerous common thing in cars is talking to other passengers.. the only time I've ever accidentally blown a red light or missed and exit is cus my passenger won't ****. With my phone I just put music on and space out

 

[FightTheFuture]

Use navigation >> ask Siri to do something >> Siri just stays there without ever returning to navigation, requiring you to look at/interact with the phone just to return to navigation, during which you may miss your exit or whatever.

Huh? All you have to do is press a button to go back to the screen. You don't have to grab your phone.

I never touch my phone when I'm driving.

Siri: The nearest petrol station is xxxx services in xxxx... village.
Me: Grrrrrr.
Me: Alexa, how far is the nearest petrol station?
Alexa: The nearest petrol station is xxxx services in xxxx... village. It is 7.8Km away............

So you drove home and asked your echo that?

 

[Swift]

Well, I never touch my screen or choose a song unless I'm at a light or a stop sign. I set up the screen I want while still parked. And for Maps, I just listen to Siri giving directions. You know, people have had accidents during distractions as simple as seeing a pretty girl walk down the street... BANG!

 

[jimtut]

Sounds like I'm in the minority of folks that LOVE CarPlay. In fact, it was a requirement in my new car, and I hadn't even used it before that. When I switch to my old car (now the kids' car) or my wife's, I'm lost trying to play music or podcasts, or navigate. WAY too many touches on the phone compared to CarPlay.

Note, however, that I never use Siri to do anything in CarPlay, except maybe dictate a text once in a while. The touchscreen interface is simple and doesn't require much touching. If you pre-load your destinations in your Calendar or Waze first, that helps a TON.

Try using it as a simplified (and safer, to me) alternative to your car-maker's screen and to the phone itself, and skip the voice-control. And don't try to search for specific songs, that's unbelievably distracting on any kind of device/interface while driving!

 

[Fender2112]

Did you really need a study to know this?

 

[itsmilo]

But looking at this is no issue..

OT: first time I see a Tesla from the inside. Looks surprisingly cheap, so much plastic. Reminds me of my old Peugeot with more toys haha

 

[Solomani]

LOL 20 participants. Statistically unreliable. Sheesh.

 

[roncron]

The message of the study seems to be: turn off your phone, turn off CarPlay, and just enjoy some weed. Responsibly, of course.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Anyone remember paper maps and flipping thru cassette tapes. That was worst.

 

[tha_man]

Yeah Siri can be pretty useless. I mean, when it does work it's great, but sadly most of time it's like arguing with a half-deaf retard, so it can be actually more distracting than just using touch.

Now touch interface in general has many problems for car use:
- you can't feel the controls with your finger without looking
- no haptic feedback when you hit the control
- you have to be careful not to touch the screen at the wrong place, because you will trigger something unwanted - that's not easy to do while driving, more so if the road is not perfectly smooth
- it's not predictable enough - controls are changing position on screen, so you can't use your muscle memory to learn the place where to hit the right button without looking
- it's asking too many questions
- too many menus/clicks before you get to the desired function
- lacking gestures, which you could use without having to hit the exact on-screen control, which is hard to do even if they're large. For example something like slide left/right for prev/next track, double touch on the left/right part of the screen to forward/rewind 30 seconds, slide with two fingers left/right for prev/next album/playlist etc. (forgive me if Caplay does have any of this, it's been a while since I tried it)
- it needs better system for quickly locating items in the lists without having to scroll through them, since scrolling through big lists is a very bad idea while driving

Basically the interface needs to be as intuitive to use without looking at it as possible. It doesn't even have to be large, just intuitive. Sadly Carplay, at least those few times I tried it felt like it was designed by people without driving licence...

 

[hortod1]

I think trying to read a paper map while driving is the most dangerous of all - and we've been doing that for decades

Yeah you're absolutely right - remember those Thomas Brother's guides? They were like a Choose Your Own Adventure book

 

[mannyvel]

Anyone remember paper maps and flipping thru cassette tapes. That was worst.

I got quite good at driving and holding a map. The cassette problem was solved with auto-reverse decks, which are still the greatest!
[automerge]1584734280[/automerge]

Sounds like I'm in the minority of folks that LOVE CarPlay.

Yeah, I use CarPlay for Waze exclusively.

 

[tha_man]

Anyone remember paper maps and flipping thru cassette tapes. That was worst.

I actually think cassette tapes were the safest solution for music in the car. Really easy to switch them, rewind, if you had the player that could automatically detect the silence between tracks even changing track was easy (it just took a bit of time).

 

[nitramluap]

I know this will upset some fragile, nerdy egos, but you can add all Tesla’s with their stupid, giant touchscreen which is required for all functions, including the most basic. Terrible, terrible human interface design in a 2 tonne killing machine.

 

[KrispE00]

I can see a couple reasons for these results:
1. The CarPlay interface is newer than the iOS interface. People aren’t used to the interface and have to think about where to touch on the screen for each action. People are more familiar with iPhone (having used the interface 10,000% more times than CarPlay) and can probably navigate the screen without looking at all.
2. Siri gives way too much extra info which can be distracting.
Me: “Hey Siri, find me a Starbucks.”
Siri: “There are 10 locations matching Starbucks near you. The first one is 2 miles to your north and averages 3 and a half stars. It is open today from 5am to 9pm. Is that one ok?”
If someone is asking where a restaurant is in the car via voice, they don’t care how many stars a restaurant has. Also, I don’t care about the hours it’s open. If it’s closed, don’t list it. Or just tell me when it closes if it’s already open.