Whether they are for you, your family, or your staff, it’s important that the vehicles you own or lease are completely safe and driveable. And this includes such factors as providing hands-free cellphone capability, especially where it’s necessary to keep in contact with them.
But just how safe is hands-free driving?
Certainly it’s a lot better than using one hand to clamp a cellphone to your ear, while texting at the wheel is a definite no-no at any time. I truly believe texting at the wheel is responsible for many – if not most – of the “unexplained loss of control” and “veering across the centre line” crashes which seem to be on the increase, and I’m appalled that the Police and the Government are doing so little to prevent this.
However, even after you have fitted hands-free devices – or bought vehicles which have them as standard – that doesn’t mean you’re now safe.
According to a new US survey from Lytx, a provider of video telematics, analytics, safety and productivity solutions for commercial and public sector fleets, drivers multi-tasking at the wheel – even if it’s talking hands-free – can cause as much as a 100 percent increase in the risk to themselves and other road users.
And 23 percent of drivers who use a hands-free device in their car also “multi-task” with something else because their hands are free, such as eating, drinking, smoking, or even using another device.
“It’s definitely important to be aware that even if you’re using a hands-free device that can be slightly distracting you, and then you add something else to it, it definitely compounds the risk,” says the survey.
One of the behaviours that often occurs when people are talking hands-free is that they drive too close to the vehicle in front, or drive too fast – whereas you can often spot a driver who is using a hand-held phone because they slow down or their car will move around erratically within its lane – or even move out of it.
It is interesting to note that this isn’t just a survey taken among a restricted number of drivers – Lytx collected data from more than 160 billion km of driving data and 100,000 risky driving events captured by video every day, combined with its machine vision and artificial intelligence technology.
