Back in October, researchers from the University of Utah released findings which showed smartphone personal assistants weren’t much safer than texting while driving. They found hands-free technology to be distracting and overly-complex, harping on Siri specifically as one of the least intuitive methods of interacting with technology through voice commands.
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Nearly two months later, The Wall Street Journal has published an in-depth piece about hands-free technology, including Apple’s response to the October study. Apple argues that the researchers did not make use of two of Siri’s most useful new features while testing it for the study.
“CarPlay and Siri Eyes Free intuitively use your vehicle’s native controls so you don’t need to pick-up and look at your phone while driving. These experiences are tailored so you only have access to iPhone apps that are optimized for the car and make sense for an in-vehicle experience,” Apple says.
Apple and other companies are building tools which will cut down on the complexity of hands-free technology, and although a majority of researchers seem to agree that voice commands are distracting, they also understand that having an alternative to looking down at the phone is a necessity.
