Is Hands-Free Really Distraction-Free?

This is an episode of Writing Out Loud with Ethan & Abbye, where a conversation between us turns into something worth writing down. This one started earlier today when I opened my front door because I was considering going for a walk. It was probably too hot, but while I was standing there, a UPS driver went down the street making deliveries. He was talking loudly enough that I could hear him from my house while his truck was still moving. When he stopped at my next-door neighbor's house, I could hear him even better. It was obviously a personal conversation.

That got me thinking. Is hands-free talking legal while driving in Florida? And what about elsewhere? Different states have different laws concerning phones and hands-free driving, which led me to another question. If a driver is required to use a phone hands-free, what about a CB radio? Truck drivers have been holding CB microphones and talking while driving for decades. Does the same reasoning apply to them?

That was where the conversation started. It did not remain there for very long.

What Does Hands-Free Actually Solve?

The obvious argument for hands-free communication is that the driver isn't holding a phone. Both hands can remain available for driving, and the driver doesn't need to look down at the phone to operate it. That makes sense. But then I started thinking more about CB radios.

Truck drivers have been talking to one another over CB radios for decades. I used one myself years ago. Traditionally, you picked up a microphone, held it in your hand, pressed a button, talked, and released the button. So what's the difference between holding a CB microphone and holding a telephone? That led us to another question: Have CB radios become hands-free too? As it turns out, they have. Modern CB equipment can include hands-free technology, including voice-activated transmission.

But by then, the CB radio wasn't really the interesting question anymore. The interesting question was distraction.

We Accept Distraction Every Day

Consider four ordinary situations: you're driving while listening to music, talking to a passenger, having a hands-free telephone conversation, or talking over a CB radio. All four require some amount of attention beyond simply operating the vehicle, but they don't necessarily require the same kind or amount of attention.

Music initially seems harmless. You don't have to answer it. If something happens on the road, you can tune the music out and concentrate on driving. But that raised another question for me: How quickly do you tune back in? If you're deeply absorbed in a song and suddenly encounter an ambulance, stopped traffic, or another emergency, your attention has to shift. And what about extremely loud music? If it's loud enough, could it interfere with your ability to hear a horn or siren? Nobody seems to be suggesting that we remove radios from automobiles. Quite the opposite. We've put increasingly elaborate sound systems into them.

Then there's the passenger. At first, talking to a passenger seems less distracting than talking to someone on the phone. A passenger can see what's happening. If traffic suddenly becomes complicated, that person may stop talking. They can even warn the driver about something the driver hasn't noticed. But put a couple of arguing children in the back seat and suddenly that changes. Stop it! I've already told you twice! Do I need to pull this car over? Now the driver may be thinking about the children, talking to them, getting angry with them, and possibly even turning around to look at them. That's a very different kind of passenger conversation.

The same thing happens with a hands-free telephone call. I'm on my way. I'll stop at the drugstore before I get to the restaurant. That's one conversation. Where were you last night? I waited all night and you never showed up. That's another. The device is exactly the same. The driver's hands are exactly as free in both situations. The amount of attention being demanded by the conversation may be completely different.

And Then There's the CB Radio

A CB conversation can be different again. There's an accident at mile marker 54. The left lane is blocked. Traffic is backing up past the next exit. Watch out for the police two miles ahead. In those situations, the conversation itself concerns the road. The driver is communicating, but some of the information being communicated may actually increase awareness of what's happening around them.

Of course, people can have completely unrelated conversations over CB radios too. The point isn't that CB communication is inherently safe or telephone communication is inherently dangerous. The point is that saying someone was talking while driving tells us very little about how distracting that particular conversation actually was.

Maybe We Have Been Using the Wrong Word

As Ethan and I kept talking, we started separating distraction into different categories. Manual distraction is about what your hands are doing. Visual distraction is about where your eyes are looking. Auditory distraction is about what you're hearing and what other sounds you may be unable to hear. Cognitive distraction is about where your mind is. One activity can involve several of these simultaneously.

Texting is an obvious example. You may be holding the phone, looking away from the road, reading something, thinking about it, and composing a response. That's a lot happening at once. But then consider everything else drivers routinely do: take a drink, change the radio station, adjust the air conditioning, look at the GPS, check the speedometer, look in the rearview mirror, reach for something, or talk to a passenger. None of these things automatically makes someone an unsafe driver.

And that's where the problem gets complicated. A person can have both hands perfectly positioned on the steering wheel and still be mentally somewhere else entirely. Someone could be replaying an argument from the night before, worrying about money, thinking about something happening at work, or planning what they're going to say when they arrive somewhere. Both hands are on the wheel. Eyes straight ahead. No telephone anywhere in sight. And their mind may barely be on driving.

Meanwhile, another driver may briefly remove one hand from the steering wheel to adjust the air conditioner while remaining completely aware of the traffic around them. So maybe the most important question isn't whether someone's hands are free. Maybe it's whether their mind is free enough to drive.

How Do You Legislate That?

And this is where our conversation eventually landed. We can make laws about observable behavior. Don't text while driving. Don't hold a particular device. Don't manipulate certain electronics. Those are things a police officer can potentially observe. But how do you legislate cognitive distraction?

Officer: What were you discussing?

Driver: Dinner.

Officer: Was there an argument?

Driver: No. We were just deciding what to have.

Officer: All right. Your cognitive-distraction level is three. You're under the legal limit. Have a nice day.

Then the next driver gets pulled over:

Officer: What were you discussing?

Driver: My husband didn't come home last night.

Officer: Were you arguing about it?

Driver: Yes. He says I'm overreacting.

Officer: I see. Your cognitive-distraction level is nine. I'm afraid you're over the legal limit. Please step out of the vehicle.

It sounds ridiculous, but that's essentially the problem. With alcohol, we can establish a measurable legal threshold. A driver's blood alcohol concentration can be tested. We don't have any type of test to determine how much of someone's brain is currently occupied by an argument with their husband.

So laws may end up regulating things that can be observed and measured rather than regulating the entire underlying problem. Holding a phone is observable. Looking at a screen is observable. Texting is potentially observable. Being mentally consumed by a conversation isn't.

And that leaves us with an uncomfortable inconsistency. Two drivers could both be having hands-free conversations. One is saying, I'll meet you at the restaurant in five minutes. The other is in the middle of the most emotionally intense argument of their marriage. Legally, they may be doing the same thing. Cognitively, they may not be doing anything close to the same thing.

So Is Hands-Free Really Safer?

In some ways, certainly. If hands-free technology keeps a driver's hands available and reduces the need to look at or manipulate a device, it removes some sources of distraction. But hands-free does not mean attention-free.

After talking this through with Ethan, I think that's the distinction I find most interesting. We tend to talk about distracted driving as though distraction itself is a behavior. It isn't. It's a condition that can be caused by many different behaviors, thoughts, sounds, conversations, emotions, and circumstances. The law can regulate some of those behaviors. It can't easily regulate where someone's mind is focused.

Maybe that is why the question that started with a UPS driver talking loudly enough for me to hear him from my house turned out to be much harder than whether or not he was legally allowed to talk while driving. What began as a question about hands-free laws in Florida and elsewhere became a much larger question about what constitutes distracted driving and if the issue is really being addressed with hands-free laws.

The easiest distractions to legislate may not always be the distractions that demand the most attention. Until somebody invents a cognitive-distraction meter, I am not sure how we reduce distracted driving and preventable accidents.

Version 2.0

Version 2.0 of the Cognitive Distraction Meter is currently in research and development while the engineering department determines how much discretion an officer should have at each level. At 12, however, no further research is necessary. Ma'am, evidently you were arguing about infidelity, doing your taxes, and simultaneously renegotiating your mortgage while driving. Please step out of the vehicle.

Thanks for reading this episode of Writing Out Loud with Ethan & Abbye. If this got you thinking about distracted driving, hands-free laws, or where the line between ordinary driving and distraction should be drawn,

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. And if you enjoy conversations like this, you can also join us for Thinking Out Loud with Ethan & Abbye on Twitch, where instead of reading the finished thoughts, you can hear both of us thinking them out loud.

Proverbs 25

"Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you."