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?
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Worse sound quality, more concentration to make out what is being said.
When someone is with you, you can kinda zone out, and ask them again, when on the phone, you tend to switch up your concentration. People in a car will talk differently too, they won’t have the full on intellectual conversations as you would person to person.
Radio (CB / walkie talkie stuff) is different again, that’s the lowest level of concentration. You listen to a message, think up a reply, and then send that back.
So radio is a bit like sending a text message, you don’t have this drive to instantly reply. Sitting in car with a person tends to have a lighter level of conversation, the people inside the car can see you looking ahead and being distracted from the conversation, they’ll also get distracted from everything else going on around them, and the phone call is a full on one-to-one conversation which distracts you a lot more.
A similar feeling to turning down the radio when you are looking for a place, less distractions.
That phone call is a level above those distractions.
Worse sound quality, more concentration to make out what is being said.
When someone is with you, you can kinda zone out, and ask them again, when on the phone, you tend to switch up your concentration. People in a car will talk differently too, they won’t have the full on intellectual conversations as you would person to person.
Radio (CB / walkie talkie stuff) is different again, that’s the lowest level of concentration. You listen to a message, think up a reply, and then send that back.
So radio is a bit like sending a text message, you don’t have this drive to instantly reply. Sitting in car with a person tends to have a lighter level of conversation, the people inside the car can see you looking ahead and being distracted from the conversation, they’ll also get distracted from everything else going on around them, and the phone call is a full on one-to-one conversation which distracts you a lot more.
A similar feeling to turning down the radio when you are looking for a place, less distractions.
That phone call is a level above those distractions.
Worse sound quality, more concentration to make out what is being said.
When someone is with you, you can kinda zone out, and ask them again, when on the phone, you tend to switch up your concentration. People in a car will talk differently too, they won’t have the full on intellectual conversations as you would person to person.
Radio (CB / walkie talkie stuff) is different again, that’s the lowest level of concentration. You listen to a message, think up a reply, and then send that back.
So radio is a bit like sending a text message, you don’t have this drive to instantly reply. Sitting in car with a person tends to have a lighter level of conversation, the people inside the car can see you looking ahead and being distracted from the conversation, they’ll also get distracted from everything else going on around them, and the phone call is a full on one-to-one conversation which distracts you a lot more.
A similar feeling to turning down the radio when you are looking for a place, less distractions.
That phone call is a level above those distractions.
The most dangerous thing you can do is type on a phone (texting, calling someone). So that kind of thing is mitigated by going hands free.
However a bunch of studies have shown that talking to someone on the phone is more dangerous than talking to someone in the car. If I remember correctly there’s a few factors involved.
1) It requires more focus to talk ot someone on the phone in general since we haven’t really evolved to interact with someone who isn’t in our physical space.
2) When someone is a passenger in the car, they are aware of the physical space as well. If something happens like a car in front slams their breaks, your passenger is likely going to notice and alert you or stop talking so you can focus on avoiding danger.
The most dangerous thing you can do is type on a phone (texting, calling someone). So that kind of thing is mitigated by going hands free.
However a bunch of studies have shown that talking to someone on the phone is more dangerous than talking to someone in the car. If I remember correctly there’s a few factors involved.
1) It requires more focus to talk ot someone on the phone in general since we haven’t really evolved to interact with someone who isn’t in our physical space.
2) When someone is a passenger in the car, they are aware of the physical space as well. If something happens like a car in front slams their breaks, your passenger is likely going to notice and alert you or stop talking so you can focus on avoiding danger.
The most dangerous thing you can do is type on a phone (texting, calling someone). So that kind of thing is mitigated by going hands free.
However a bunch of studies have shown that talking to someone on the phone is more dangerous than talking to someone in the car. If I remember correctly there’s a few factors involved.
1) It requires more focus to talk ot someone on the phone in general since we haven’t really evolved to interact with someone who isn’t in our physical space.
2) When someone is a passenger in the car, they are aware of the physical space as well. If something happens like a car in front slams their breaks, your passenger is likely going to notice and alert you or stop talking so you can focus on avoiding danger.
Your brain is focused on the discussion, not driving. Multitasking reduces your brains processing speed. That’s why so many trips feel fast- if you’re distracted, you’re driving on autopilot without paying attention
Your brain is focused on the discussion, not driving. Multitasking reduces your brains processing speed. That’s why so many trips feel fast- if you’re distracted, you’re driving on autopilot without paying attention
Your brain is focused on the discussion, not driving. Multitasking reduces your brains processing speed. That’s why so many trips feel fast- if you’re distracted, you’re driving on autopilot without paying attention
Having a light conversation that doesn’t need much thought might not be much of a distraction.
Deeper conversations, or even just listening to “intellectual” radio programmes, where you start to engage your mind thinking about the subject or topic, thinking ahead, imagining scenarios, pondering what-ifs … all start using the parts of the brain that ought to be engaged as part of competent driving, monitoring the surroundings, hazard perception etc.
Basically anything which starts making you have to think about something else while driving puts your headspace someplace else.
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