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Another thing I'd like to see studied is the nature of the hands-free experience and whether it makes any difference what type of hands-free device you use. I don't talk on the phone very much when I drive because I feel distracted, both when holding a handset and when using my BT ear bud headset. (Heck, I don't talk much on my cell phone period, but that's another story.) In both cases, my attention wants to contract to inside the vehicle to whatever is going on with the device. That's not a good way to drive and so I usually just let my phone go over to voicemail and return the call when I get where I'm going. As some others here have mentioned, it depends on the traffic situation.
But recently I got a new GPS that actually has a usable hands-free built-in (previous models that I owned had such poor quality as to be useless) and I find that I don't respond the same way to it that I do to holding the phone or a headset. Talking through the GPS feels more natural and doesn't seem to require the same level of concentration as the others. Of course, I'm only one person and may or may not be typical in this regard, but it has made me question whether a conversation that more closely simulates that of another passenger might not be different in terms of the attention it requires.
BTW, I noted that the quotes doogald provided answered the question that arose elsewhere in this thread. Talking on a cell phone makes your accident risk 4 times higher than without a distraction and texting makes your accident risk 23 times higher. That quantifies my original contention that, while talking on the phone is dangerous, texting is dramatically worse.
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