Looks more and more like plain old manual controls don't just work better, but are safer too.
The report released Tuesday confirmed that by testing the level of distraction caused by several factory-installed voice systems and the popular Siri system offered on Apple iPhones.
It used a relatively simply grading system. Level 1 was minimal distraction — listening to the radio or books on tape. Level 2 was moderate distraction — talking on a handheld or hands-free cell phone. Levels 3 and 4 were a high level of distraction.
The foundation’s 2013 research already had determined that voice-activated applications rated a hair above Level 3, while hands-free conversation was closer to Level 2 and handheld ranked between levels 2 and 3. (Talking to a passenger came in at about 2.4, books on tape fell at about 1.8, listening to the radio at 1.2)
Curious that the much vaunted Siri (and yes, I even have a iphone for work) is the most distracting item. The radio report I heard mentioned frustration with the voice commands not doing what people wanted. Call me a Luddite, but knobs and levers work best for car controls, instantly and infinitely adjustable. Now I do like a USB and MP3 capability on the stereo, but with a knob for volume and tuning.
I plug my phone into my radio on long trips quite frequently. Invariably I'll try to skip or repeat a track by pressing the seek buttons on the radio and being momentarily confused as to why they don't work.
I can vouch for the frustrations of voice controls. It's extremely handy, when it works. I nearly always wind up yelling at the damn thing to get it to understand me properly. Yell, look at phone to check that it got it right, cancel command before it takes, hit voice button again, repeat. The only thing I use it for when driving is typically navigation.
I've been taking a lot of heat lately for lambasting my new Samsung Galaxy S4, which replaced a rock solid Motorola E815 that I maintained for the past nine years. I was told I don't look "professional" as an IT security specialist without having a smartphone, even though I have the most advanced laptop and Jetpack for my most important technical work... So I bit the bullet and took the plunge into Shittyphoneland.
As an example, my old Moto had a slick voice-command interface, allowing me to call or text anyone without looking at the phone for more than a 100ms glance. This new phone REQUIRES connectivity to the Internet in order to voice dial, and much of the time, the "smart" phone goes to shitville for up to 30 seconds before it comes back and says, "Do you want to call XXXX?". What the fuck were they thinking?
I've been railing against that absolutely dreadfully counter-intuitive interface of the new phone, the constant sucking of data, the rampant drainage of the battery, and the miserable voice commands. As an instructor in Street Survival, I continually explain that the problem of distracted driving is that folks are looking at their phone (and away from the road) for well over 300ms with these phones, which puts you firmly in the danger zone. Now that I am living with one, I understand how the piss poor interface is what "forces" one to look at the phone for too long, and why the mobile phone companies have created a problem that did not exist before, and the car companies haven't done nearly enough to eliminate this problem.
This article was great. I feel quite vindicated in my opinions now. Thank you!
garageboy wrote: a rock solid Motorola E815 that I maintained for the past nine years
You! Again with the Motorola E815! The Motorola has moved on and so should you. Besides, nobody wanted to tell you, but for the last eight of those nine years, the Motorola was cheating on you. We all knew it and couldn’t understand how you couldn’t know. I guess love is blind.
As far as distracted driving, don’t do it. I missed an important milestone in my M5’s life because of distracted driving. When you miss those cherished moments, they’re gone forever, you don’t get them back.
I agree with this 100%, My truck is a 2013 and the Dodge Uconnect system makes you look at the screen all the time. I feel better picking up my phone and doing it.
Karl Grau wrote:As far as distracted driving, don’t do it. I missed an important milestone in my M5’s life because of distracted driving. When you miss those cherished moments, they’re gone forever, you don’t get them back.
Who are you? Nancy Reagan?
If "Just Say NO" worked, distracted driving would not still be the huge problem that it is! People are going to communicate while driving, so either you take the steering wheel away from them by creating the autonomous car, or you improve the phone technology so that this ceases to be an issue.
Where the fuck where these companies the past 9 years while I was jerking off my Moto E815??
BimmerDan wrote:I agree with this 100%, My truck is a 2013 and the Dodge Uconnect system makes you look at the screen all the time. I feel better picking up my phone and doing it.
Just out of curiousity, what kind of phone are you using with the Uconnect?
I had a 2012 Dodge Ram company vehicle for awhile, and the Uconnect was flawless paired with an Iphone 4s. In fact, thats the only reason i miss that truck.
Alot of my day is spent driving while on the phone, and it was the best setup i have used so far. I rarely had to look at the screen for anything. I'm wondering if they have complicated things more in later model years?
BimmerDan wrote:I agree with this 100%, My truck is a 2013 and the Dodge Uconnect system makes you look at the screen all the time. I feel better picking up my phone and doing it.
Just out of curiousity, what kind of phone are you using with the Uconnect?
I had a 2012 Dodge Ram company vehicle for awhile, and the Uconnect was flawless paired with an Iphone 4s. In fact, thats the only reason i miss that truck.
Alot of my day is spent driving while on the phone, and it was the best setup i have used so far. I rarely had to look at the screen for anything. I'm wondering if they have complicated things more in later model years?
I'm using a Samsung Note 3. It has actually gotten worse with every update to the radio, but at least the radio works now. It does work great for making calls, but the Voice to Text system is garbage.
I'll go out on a limb and say that the Bluetooth hands-free system (at least the phone part - the music player can only be controlled thru your device) is pretty intuitive in my VW. It automatically recognizes your phonebook, so you don't have to program individual numbers like in my GF's Mazda3, and does a good job of recognizing names, even weird ones. The button to activate the voice control isn't among a sea of other buttons, so it's intuitive when I wanna use it. It also reads out on the MFI display high up in the gauge cluster, so it's no more than a momentary glance down to see who's calling me. It's made me re-think that not all hands-free systems are bad.
Aside from being a hands free music player (where I can control the player though the steering wheels or radio) the hands-free system in the Mazda is garbage. The kicker is the cars are the same year (2013), similar MSRP too
I had a Motorola E815. Great phone. Bluetooth and everything else. I threw it at a wall pretty hard (83mph according to my radar gun) once and it broke but didn't show any signs of damage (ribbon cable broke), so I took it back to Verizon and they replaced it. I eventually got the Casio G'Z One because it was pretty substantial but it lacked the Bluetooth which I never used so that kinda sucked. Then I got a Motorola Droid and I really feel that was the worst phone I've ever had. I think my StarTAC experience would have been better had it been on not AT&T.
So far, big fan of the iPhone. I liked my 4 better than the 5s though. I rarely use Siri and when I do, she is a huge bitch and annoys the shit out of me. I really try to look for the good in people but she is pretty terrible. Plus I think she smokes.
I'm going as Nancy Reagan for Halloween if I can still squeeze into that little red Bill Blass cocktail dress that I picked up at a White House garage sale in 1986. If not, I may go as Jeff Spicoli.
I'm going as Nancy Reagan for Halloween if I can still squeeze into that little red Bill Blass cocktail dress that I picked up at a White House garage sale in 1986. If not, I may go as Jeff Spicoli.
What? You could totally pull off The Dude. All you'd need is the bathrobe, a White Russian, and a goatee (or a reasonable facsimile.)
Yes, I know what you look like, but I still picture you like this: