Florida drivers sometimes have no choice but to rely on technology while driving. Many jobs like rideshare or food delivery services rely on you having a phone. You need your GPS navigation and the ability to send and receive messages about orders.
Hands-free tech emerged as a way to make it safer for drivers to use these devices on the road. But just how safe is driving with hands-free devices? How much do they actually help?
What forms of distraction do drivers face?
The National Safety Council takes a look at the impact of hands-free tech on distracted driving. Studies have shown overall that hands-free tech does not actually improve the safety of drivers that much. This is because there are three areas of distracted driving that require addressing. Hands-free tech only addresses two of them.
These three areas are cognitive, visual and physical distractions. The primary purpose of hands-free tech is to keep your hands off of your device, as the name states. It doubles as a way to keep your eyes on the road, too. This helps eliminate physical and visual distractions.
Why does hands-free tech fail to stop cognitive distraction?
But what about cognitive distractions? This is an area that causes many crashes every day, as it involves any matter that takes your mind off of the task at hand. Because of the nature of cognitive distractions, hands-free tech actually contributes to them.
Until hands-free tech can address all three areas and not just two, they cannot provide drivers with foolproof safety. Drivers may even feel protected while using hands-free tech, contributing to risky behavior that can lead to even more crashes. On a whole, the risk of distracted driving is still very much intact.