Apple's Siri voice recognition texting is just as dangerous as sending messages at the wheel

Apple's Siri Voice recognition whilst driving could be just as dangerous as texting 

Researchers claim that Apple's Siri voice recognition texting is just as dangerous as sending messages at the wheel. The study was performed by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. The research involved 43 participants driving along a test track without any electronic devises present. The same participants then drove while texting and again using speech to text device, also known as Siri.

A spokesperson for the research group said: 'In each case, drivers took about twice as long to react as they did when they were not texting. Eye contact to the roadway also decreased, no matter which texting method was used. You're still using your mind to try to think of what you're trying to say, and that by proxy causes some driving impairment, and that decreases your response time. The speech-to-text actually took longer than traditional texting, due to the need to correct errors in the electronic transcription.

Drivers felt safer using Siri Voice recognition than texting although the performance was equally affected

The biggest concern is that the driver felt safer while using voice-to-text applications instead of traditional texting, even though driving performance was equally affected. This may lead to a false belief that texting while driving using spoken commands is safe when in reality it is not.

Every day, new technologies come out, and it is important to educate the public that even these seemingly new distractions are still distractions, and it will help people be safer when they get into the vehicle." According to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, 6.1 billion text messages per day were sent in the United States in 2012. According to the American Automobile Assoication, some 35% of drivers admit to reading a text or email while driving in any given month, while 26 percent admitted to typing one.