Sunday, October 12, 2014

Siri in the Car: Is It a Distraction?

                Most in-car navigation systems nowadays support very basic integration with smartphones to enable answering phone calls, listening to music, or even reading your text messages. Unfortunately, this all relies on the user interface that the car manufacturer decided to put in their cars and it’s different per manufacturer. Another feature that such systems lack in is that they are usually not internet-enabled and the navigation does not always provide you the best route or even sometimes an updated map. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could leverage the power of your phone and the cloud to provide you with a familiar interface that you use on a daily basis and provide better navigation with knowledge about traffic conditions and the latest maps at your disposal? Well, it turns out that this is soon going to be a reality for Apple iPhone users with Siri CarPlay and Google Android users with Android Auto.
                Siri CarPlay is just now coming to the market with new Pioneer car receiver firmware updates enabling CarPlay when you connect a compatible iPhone. Upon connection, the screen on the receiver changes to an iOS-like homescreen with the typical Apple apps for Phone, Music, Maps, and Messages. Finally, you can enjoy everything you love about your smartphone seamlessly integration with your car. Using Siri, you can make phone calls, send messages, play music, and get directions all with the sound of your voice. Google’s Android Auto, while still in development, will support similar features using Google’s technologies. Now, this all sounds good, but can this distract you from driving?
                It turns out that, according to a study done by AAA, the use of Apple’s Siri in the car “generated a relatively high category 4 level of mental distraction.” Listening to the radio was considered as a level 1 distraction, talking on a cell-phone was a level 2 distraction, and using an error-free speech-to-text system for listening to and composing messages was a level 3 distraction. They found out that the “accuracy of the voice recognition software significantly influenced the rate of distraction”. I would agree with their findings because I have tried Siri on my iPhone a couple of times and it doesn’t always correctly understand what I am saying. Apple will definitely need to work on improving Siri’s voice recognition, especially when it is now advertising CarPlay as a new feature which appears to be more distracting than existing systems.
                As of now, I am not sure that we are ready to embrace Apple’s Siri in the car because of how much it distracts the driver behind the wheel. At least, studies like AAA’s are being done and voice recognition system manufacturers are being called to reduce their system’s mental distraction capacity. Regardless, cars will soon integrate tightly with our smartphones and app developers will design their apps for CarPlay and Android Auto to keep us connected to the online world. The next question will be whether social media apps like Twitter and Facebook will be designed for the car and how much of a distraction they will create in the car.

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