What are voice interfaces good for? Slower than a keyboard for text entry, too distracting for the car. Not really precise enough for controlling a computer game. I guess they are good for asking Internet queries such as "What is the temperature outside?"
For one-sentence queries, it's a lot faster to say it than type it, especially if you're using your eyes and/or paws for something else. Walking out of the office, down some stairs, with a "how long will it take to get home?" is much faster than typing and descending stairs.
I agree though, for longer stuff, the error correction takes way too long. It nabs a single sentence pretty well for me, if I've thought it out a bit before I speak -- that's probably the cognitive load that increases distraction in the car.
I agree though, for longer stuff, the error correction takes way too long. It nabs a single sentence pretty well for me, if I've thought it out a bit before I speak -- that's probably the cognitive load that increases distraction in the car.
That's an excellent point, the cognitive load probably comes from people trying to think back about what queries have worked/not worked in the past. I wonder if they measured someone talking to someone else who doesn't speak their language would get similar readings, or to a child with limited vocal, or a pet.
I love the level of insanity here. I wonder where they’d rank “a conversation” on this chart, since that’s all that Siri is.
Well, it's like a conversation with my 89-year-old mother, which does drive one to distraction and road rage. The only thing Siri doesn't do that my mother does is first say, "Speak up, I can't hear you" and follow that up with "Don't YELL at me!"
Siri is fantastic, but there's no question that it still needs a lot of work and frankly, I've been surprised that there hasn't been continuous improvement coming from Apple in this regard.
Nothing is as dangerous as texting manually in a car, we all know that. Siri is much better. In fact She is amazing. About 50% amazing, and that is why she is also very dangerous.
But that's exactly the point. The article shows "Siri" as the single most distracting thing you can do in a car when in fact it is less distracting than doing the same stuff without a voice interface.
Yes, AAA of course it's far safer to look at a crappy printed map you get from the AAA office whilst driving than listen to turn by turn direction and keeping your eyes on the road. Missing people coming to your office for maps maybe?
That's an excellent point. They absolutely should have tested how distracted people are using a printed map.
How about the Kids in the Back yelling at each other, jumping in the seats, etc. talking about Distracting. If Siri is this distracting, just having a passenger next to you would be just as distracting if not more so.
How about the Kids in the Back yelling at each other, jumping in the seats, etc. talking about Distracting. If Siri is this distracting, just having a passenger next to you would be just as distracting if not more so.
The vast majority of cars on US roads are single occupant.
How about the Kids in the Back yelling at each other, jumping in the seats, etc. talking about Distracting. If Siri is this distracting, just having a passenger next to you would be just as distracting if not more so.
If your kids are jumping in the seats of a moving vehicle, then you have bigger problems than navigation. This isn't 1978.
The point is that hands free voice operation of a smart phone is surprisingly more distracting than some other things we're doing in the car. Listing random things that are more distracting than this does not reduce the amount of distraction created during voice operation of a smart phone while driving.
Siri and other voice features on other phones, like I've also tested Cortana and Google Voice, all require attentive and quick talking to get them to understand. This steals from driving attention. I know the in-car voice command in my car, the one made very specifically for cars, doesn't require you to be so quick at your commands and numbers etc. If they'd figure out how to make Siri more forgiving on speed and accuracy and more responsive after commands, it might become much less of a distraction.
But that's exactly the point. The article shows "Siri" as the single most distracting thing you can do in a car when in fact it is less distracting than doing the same stuff without a voice interface.
When it was still legal to text and drive, people got very distracted and once illegal most people stop that practice and were no longer distracted. Now that they can text again using their voice, they are distracted once again. It is more than just taking your eyes off the road.
Haven't you ever been driving behind someone who was talking on a cell phone? You can just tell they are distracted. Their driving is on some form of mental autopilot because their brain is 99% preoccupied with the phone conversation. Just because you can use your voice doesn't make it safe to text.
I do think it was unfortunate that AAA decided to call out only Siri in the study. They could have at least mentioned the other popular platforms or just said smartphone voice command usage in general, however maybe they didn't test any other platforms.
How about the Kids in the Back yelling at each other, jumping in the seats, etc. talking about Distracting. If Siri is this distracting, just having a passenger next to you would be just as distracting if not more so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
This is, of course, Apple’s fault.
Dumbest comment of the day, so far, but it's early yet.
Maybe you should do a little googling before putting your big foot in it.
Apparently I'm incapable so please elucidate as to why you believe that because the majority of vehicles on the road at any one time have a single occupant that it somehow makes it irrelevant that all the other multi-occupant vehicles could have severe distractions within their cabin and how these distractions aren't a potential problem for single occupancy vehicles around them.
Not irrelevant but not overly significant. It's simple math, work it out.
You should work it out. There are a significant number of drivers with in-car distractions and those drivers can endanger their lives, the lives of their passengers, people in other vehicles, pedestrians and property around them.
Comments
I love the level of insanity here. I wonder where they’d rank “a conversation” on this chart, since that’s all that Siri is.
Check it out, from the AAA report: http://publicaffairsresources.aaa.biz/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/1-AAAFTS-Phase-2-Report-FINAL-10.3.2014.pdf
Emphasis mine.
"Voice activated features may seem to be a natural development in vehicle safety that requires little justification.
However, a large and growing body of literature cautions that auditory/vocal tasks may
have unintended consequences that adversely affect traffic safety. What has become clear is
that synthetic speech interactions can lead to surprisingly high levels of cognitive workload,
well beyond that of natural conversation with another human (e.g., Strayer et al., 2013)."
Also, it appears AAA went to greater lengths than most normal consumers in order to make sure that siri worked properly:
"Finally, advanced voice recognition systems such as Apple’s Siri offer the potential for the
driver to issue commands and queries using natural language. Does this sort of voice-based
interface reduce the level of cognitive workload compared to the speech-to-text system
evaluated by Strayer et al., (2013)? Perhaps the natural language interface is similar in
cognitive demand to that of a cell phone conversation. Based upon discussion with technical
staff at Apple, we customized Siri so that the system was completely hands- and eyes-free.
To create a completely hands-free version, a lapel microphone was clipped to the driver’s
collar and they activated Siri with the command “Hello Siri,” at which point a researcher
manually activate the device. The driver neither looked at nor made physical contact with the
iPhone during these interactions. Therefore, any differences from the single-task baseline
provide a pure measure of the cognitive workload associated with use of the system."
I am not praising AAA or bashing apple, just trying to digest and understand the facts.
What are voice interfaces good for? Slower than a keyboard for text entry, too distracting for the car. Not really precise enough for controlling a computer game. I guess they are good for asking Internet queries such as "What is the temperature outside?"
For one-sentence queries, it's a lot faster to say it than type it, especially if you're using your eyes and/or paws for something else. Walking out of the office, down some stairs, with a "how long will it take to get home?" is much faster than typing and descending stairs.
I agree though, for longer stuff, the error correction takes way too long. It nabs a single sentence pretty well for me, if I've thought it out a bit before I speak -- that's probably the cognitive load that increases distraction in the car.
I agree though, for longer stuff, the error correction takes way too long. It nabs a single sentence pretty well for me, if I've thought it out a bit before I speak -- that's probably the cognitive load that increases distraction in the car.
That's an excellent point, the cognitive load probably comes from people trying to think back about what queries have worked/not worked in the past. I wonder if they measured someone talking to someone else who doesn't speak their language would get similar readings, or to a child with limited vocal, or a pet.
I love the level of insanity here. I wonder where they’d rank “a conversation” on this chart, since that’s all that Siri is.
Well, it's like a conversation with my 89-year-old mother, which does drive one to distraction and road rage. The only thing Siri doesn't do that my mother does is first say, "Speak up, I can't hear you" and follow that up with "Don't YELL at me!"
Siri is fantastic, but there's no question that it still needs a lot of work and frankly, I've been surprised that there hasn't been continuous improvement coming from Apple in this regard.
Nothing is as dangerous as texting manually in a car, we all know that. Siri is much better. In fact She is amazing. About 50% amazing, and that is why she is also very dangerous.
But that's exactly the point. The article shows "Siri" as the single most distracting thing you can do in a car when in fact it is less distracting than doing the same stuff without a voice interface.
Yes, AAA of course it's far safer to look at a crappy printed map you get from the AAA office whilst driving than listen to turn by turn direction and keeping your eyes on the road. Missing people coming to your office for maps maybe?
That's an excellent point. They absolutely should have tested how distracted people are using a printed map.
How about the Kids in the Back yelling at each other, jumping in the seats, etc. talking about Distracting. If Siri is this distracting, just having a passenger next to you would be just as distracting if not more so.
How about the Kids in the Back yelling at each other, jumping in the seats, etc. talking about Distracting. If Siri is this distracting, just having a passenger next to you would be just as distracting if not more so.
The vast majority of cars on US roads are single occupant.
How about the Kids in the Back yelling at each other, jumping in the seats, etc. talking about Distracting. If Siri is this distracting, just having a passenger next to you would be just as distracting if not more so.
If your kids are jumping in the seats of a moving vehicle, then you have bigger problems than navigation. This isn't 1978.
The point is that hands free voice operation of a smart phone is surprisingly more distracting than some other things we're doing in the car. Listing random things that are more distracting than this does not reduce the amount of distraction created during voice operation of a smart phone while driving.
But that's exactly the point. The article shows "Siri" as the single most distracting thing you can do in a car when in fact it is less distracting than doing the same stuff without a voice interface.
When it was still legal to text and drive, people got very distracted and once illegal most people stop that practice and were no longer distracted. Now that they can text again using their voice, they are distracted once again. It is more than just taking your eyes off the road.
Haven't you ever been driving behind someone who was talking on a cell phone? You can just tell they are distracted. Their driving is on some form of mental autopilot because their brain is 99% preoccupied with the phone conversation. Just because you can use your voice doesn't make it safe to text.
I do think it was unfortunate that AAA decided to call out only Siri in the study. They could have at least mentioned the other popular platforms or just said smartphone voice command usage in general, however maybe they didn't test any other platforms.
This is, of course, Apple’s fault.
How about the Kids in the Back yelling at each other, jumping in the seats, etc. talking about Distracting. If Siri is this distracting, just having a passenger next to you would be just as distracting if not more so.
This is, of course, Apple’s fault.
Dumbest comment of the day, so far, but it's early yet.
Now that is the dumbest comment I've heard all day.
Apparently I'm incapable so please elucidate as to why you believe that because the majority of vehicles on the road at any one time have a single occupant that it somehow makes it irrelevant that all the other multi-occupant vehicles could have severe distractions within their cabin and how these distractions aren't a potential problem for single occupancy vehicles around them.
I also hear "HAIRGATE" is the now a problem with the iPhone 6 tearing out women's hair.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11143856/Apple-iPhone-6-is-tearing-out-my-hair-How-tech-isnt-designed-for-women.html
You should work it out. There are a significant number of drivers with in-car distractions and those drivers can endanger their lives, the lives of their passengers, people in other vehicles, pedestrians and property around them.