What makes talking on the phone while driving more dangerous than talking to another passenger in your car? Does talking on speaker-phone mitigate any of this risk?

Question

What makes talking on the phone while driving more dangerous than talking to another passenger in your car? Does talking on speaker-phone mitigate any of this risk?

In: 26

Answer 1

Looking at your phone is the primary risk, texting or otherwise. Hugely more likely to get in accidents if you do this.

There’s some evidence that talking on your phone with a hands free device is safer than talking on the phone directly, but it’s pretty weak, and any sort of talking on the phone is significantly distracting.

There’s reasonably good evidence that talking to a passenger is much less distracting than talking on the phone. We don’t fully know why but can speculate. Passengers are in the car looking forward and can alter the conversation based on traffic conditions, are more likely to comment on traffic conditions which might even help the driver stay attentive, etc.