Study Indicates Using Siri To Text Is Just As Dangerous As Manual Texting

No shit. Just like "hands-free" calling and "holding phone in hand" calling have been demonstrated to be equally distracting. It's about mental cycles not about dexterity.

This study is probably garbage. While there's no question that any activity involving brain power not channeled toward driving will result in some level of impairment, the conclusion that texting manually, which requires you to look away from the road, is no more dangerous than something than doesn't require you to look away, is dangerous. I congratulate these biased do-gooders for encouraging some to not bother with hands-free and just keep on manually texting.

The human brain is powerful if trained and useless otherwise. I would like to see a study that sets out to determine if training can improve the response time. I use Siri every so often, but I've trained myself to use it for short messages and during straight stretches of road only. I've also made the completion of the text completely secondary--in other words, I'm ready to stop in mid-thought whenever conditions change. If this study's methodology was to tell the participants that they must complete a certain text message during a short drive full of potential dangers (intersections, school zones, etc) then it's already flawed. They've basically made texting the prime directive, which will obviously impair driving. Hands free doesn't exist to let you text the Gettysburg Address or a "Dear John" text to someone whenever you get the urge and regardless of the driving conditions.

Study does not look at the difference between receiving and sending texts though. As a Siri enabled iphone user with some integration into my car's hands free system, I'll say that 1) Sending any texts is more dangerous than not doing it at all 2) Using Siri does allow you to avoid taking your eyes of the road which can't be done otherwise 3) Dictating to Siri anything more than a very short answer could be very distracting as shown in the study, but isn't as much of an issue with simple one liners. 4) There is no question in my mind that reading a text message on your phone while driving is far more distracting than saying to Siri "check text messages" and having her/it read it aloud over the car's speakers.

Good points, stampfer. Unfortunately, these studies seem to be agenda-driven.

I'm just curious as to when they are going to try and outlaw people from eating while driving. I forget where I saw it, but a study showed that eating while driving is worse than texting and driving. Also why not try and ban vanity mirrors in sun visors. I see tons of people driving down the road looking at the mirror trying to shave and put makeup on. They are focusing too much on texting and driving versus distracted driving as a whole.