Driving & Talking

1
The issue of cell phones have become commonplace
in society that talking about one while driving
is extremely unsafe, but recent research has
shown that if the person you are talking to can
see the road from your viewpoint, it can markedly
improve performance compared to conversations
where they cannot.
2
For years research has suggested that passengers,
while being deemed as distractions to drivers,
can actually prove to be helpful to the driver,
especially if the passenger is an experienced
driver.
3
Beckman Institute director and University of
Illinois psychology professor Arthur Kramer led a
research team to determine the true distraction
to drivers and the varying degrees of harm forms
of communication affect performance.
4
For the study, they set up three groups of
college-age participants who were subject to
different forms of distraction through verbal
communication while driving in a simulation
involving unpredictable cars.
5
The three test groups consisting of a driver with
a passenger, a driver talking on a hands-free
device, and driver communicating with someone
verbally who could see from the driver's
viewpoint.
6
The last group was a control group with only a
driver in the simulation with no distractions.
7
The participants were graded on how well they
maintained their distance from other cars, their
speed, how effectively, they found and used in
the designated exit, and whether or not they had
any collisions.
8
Unsurprisingly, driving alone proved to be the
safest option of the 4 groups.
9
They had noticeably fewer accidents than drivers
with a passenger.
10
While passengers help keep track of road
conditions, exits, and some traffic they did not,
however aid in the accident prevention and in
some cases led to them.
11
Cell phone conversations with someone with no
knowledge of the drivers viewpoint inside or
outside the vehicle were significantly more
dangerous.
12
Traffic accidents tripled compared to the control
group of a driver silently driving alone.
13
Drivers who held conversations with callers who
shared the same viewpoint inside and outside the
vehicle displayed interesting results.
14
These drivers were less likely to have a
collision than those whose cell phone partner
couldn't see what were going on.
15
Researchers noted that the conversation was
affected by the current road and traffic
conditions while the driver and the cell phone
participant talked and shared characteristics
with those in the passenger group.
16
Both groups showed that they aid the driver with
some aspects of safer driving, but ultimately are
less safe than driving alone, but significantly
more safe than talking to someone who has no
viewpoint on the road and traffic.
17
With accidents reduced by 40-50 just by having
the other person on the phone being able to see
what is going on, products like Google Glass
could allow for shared viewpoint driving in the
not so distant future.