They've been vastly ahead of everyone else with things like text OCR, image element recognition / extraction, microphone noise suppression, etc.
iPhones have had these features 2-5 years before Android did.
apple is so hit or miss.
I think the image ocr is great and usable. I can take a picture of a phone number and dial it.
but trying to edit a text field is such a nightmare.
(try to change "this if good" to "this is good" on iphone with your fingers is non-apple cumbersome)
"first" isn't always more important than "best". Apple has historically been ok with not being first, as long as it was either best or very obviously "much better". It always, well, USED TO focus on best. It has lost its way in that lately.
People should not be using their phones while driving anyways. My iPhone disables all notifications, except for Find My notifications, while driving. Bluetooth speaker calls are an exception.
I think there's even better models now but Whisper still works fine for me. And there's a big ecosystem around it.