Study: Car infotainment systems distract even with voice commands
DETROIT (AP) -- Car infotainment systems that use voice commands may let drivers keep their hands on the wheel, but they're still highly distracting.
Research released Thursday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that it took drivers up to 27 seconds to return to full attention after using voice commands.
The research, done at the University of Utah, also compared various voice-operated systems from 2015 model-year vehicles.
Infotainment systems in the Chevrolet Equinox, Buick Lacrosse and Toyota 4Runner were the least distracting. The system in the Mazda6 was the most distracting because it required multiple steps and had poor voice recognition.
For drivers talking to their phones, researchers said Google Now was more intuitive -- and slightly less distracting -- than Apple's Siri.