Bad news — using your phone hands-free is still a major driving distraction

You know what, I think it’s time to call it: you can’t safely talk on the phone and drive at the same time. For years, we’ve been coming up with new hands-free methods for maintaining conversations or doing quick mobile tasks while we’re on the road, but a new study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety confirms that even the smallest tasks, like voice-activated phone use, is still distracting when drivers are on the road.

Voice activated systems in general have been deemed dangerous, even systems installed in your car, like navigation and music. They found that the worst systems could be distracting for up to 27 seconds after they were used.

To determine this, they used a five-point system:

Anything over a category two constitutes a possibly dangerous distraction. Listening to the radio or an audio book only counts as a mild distraction, but for everything else, all this study does is confirm the truth we haven’t wanted to face: there’s no safe way to multitask while driving. So now we know- phone conversations, choosing music, all that needs to be dealt with before or after your trip.

Related:

Yikes! One-third of teens are still texting and driving

Tennessee just came up with a very creative way to catch people texting and driving

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