It's not just cell phones

[jamesqf]

It seems that talking to your car can be a major cause of impaired driving, too:

...a new study says it can take 27 seconds for a driver using a voice-activated entertainment system to regain full alertness after making a command from behind the wheel. That means a car going 25 mph can travel the length of three football fields before a driver’s brain fully recovers from the act of dialing a phone number or changing music using increasingly popular in-car entertainment systems.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...1dc_story.html

[redpoint5]

Yeah, I've always said that if cell phones are distracting to drivers, then it absolutely should be illegal to drive with children. Any conversation is distracting.

[MkVer]

AAA has been studying distractions for years. Below are links to the full studies.

Quick Fact Sheet.
https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/...tractionFS.pdf

Full Report.
https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/...stractions.pdf

[niky]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Yeah, I've always said that if cell phones are distracting to drivers, then it absolutely should be illegal to drive with children. Any conversation is distracting.

I think a few studies have pointed out that teenagers are more likely to get into accidents if they're together in a car. Having anyone to talk to is a distraction.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Yeah, I've always said that if cell phones are distracting to drivers, then it absolutely should be illegal to drive with children. Any conversation is distracting.

Baby On Board is a helpful warning to the rest of us.

[Xist]

I do not talk to my stereo very much, but I do not expect it to do what I say. Siri does not seem to listen very well, so I would not expect a car to do much better.

It is not like we are talking to Kitt.

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Baby On Board is a helpful warning to the rest of us.

Those signs never made sense to me. They want me to drive safer [than them] because they have a sign, whether or not they actually have a child in the car.

[Fat Charlie]

No, they're warning us that they're more distracted than everyone else!

[NeilBlanchard]

Eating while driving (guilty) is distracting. I have seen guys shaving (with an electric razor) and I have seen a woman putting on mascara while driving ~70MPH in the left lane. She was leaning in close to the rear view mirror to get her eyelashes thicker and longer. Yikes!

At a previous office where I worked, the boss used to spread out letters and memos to refer to while on the phone, and also record dictation, all while driving like a maniac to get to his next appointment on time.

[jamesqf]

I have to admit to a bit of prejudice here, as I simply can't understand why anyone would want to talk to a computer in the first place. Touch screen controls are bad enough (there goes any chance of me buying a Tesla :-(), but having to speak to it? Yuck.

[gone-ot]

• Brevit Summary: "...Danger, Will Robinson, DRIVING IS DANGEROUS...".