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1. I remember not too long ago when you couldn’t make a call
while driving without it being hands-free.

2. Every time a driver would ever pick up their cell phone to
make or receive a call they were putting themselves, their
passengers, other drivers, and even pedestrians at risk.

3. Even with the improvements in technology, especially when
concerning cell phones and vehicle compatibility some risk
has been reduced with the hands-free implications that are
being made in newer model vehicles.

4. This does not however mean that all risk associated with
talking on a cell phone while driving has been eliminated
though.

5. Let’s discuss some of the risks that every driver faces when
they take or make a call while driving even when they are
using hands-free technology.

6. One of the risks that has been found to be true by a study at
the University of Utah, which was funded by the AAA
Foundation for Traffic Safety the education arm of AAA is
that when using speech-enabled technologies drivers were
actually more distracted while driving in the simulation or a
research vehicle than when they were driving while just
talking on a phone.

7. This being said the simple clicking of a button on your
steering wheel to answer an inbound call is distracting, but
can be safer than just picking up your cell phone.

8. Another risk that is sweeping the nation for drivers is the
speech-to-text enabled capabilities of newer vehicles.

9. It has been discovered that this feature may actually
overload the driver thus making their driving more
dangerous for themselves and others.

10. It has been discovered by Dr.Strayer of the University of
Utah that actually talking on the phone whether it is using a
hands-free device or not can be much more dangerous than
driving drunk.

11. However, the level of mental distraction isn’t universal with
each vehicle or phone.

12. Another study has been done by AAA to compare the level
of mental distraction.

13. From the study the safest vehicles to choose from door
their voice-activated systems is the Chevy Equinox, Buick
Lacrosse, and the Toyota 4Runner.

14. The most dangerous vehicles or voice-activated software
was found in the Mazda 6, Microsoft Cortana, and the
Sonota by Hyundai.

15. In conclusion while using a hands-free device can be safer
at times if you choose to take or make a call compared to
actually picking up your phone and taking your eyes off the
road there are still certain risks that drivers should be aware
of.

16. Ultimately the only way to eliminate these risks all together
is to simply not talk or text while driving.