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Comment by Nogwater | Hacker News Reader

Since hands-free phone usage is just as distracting[1], it would be very challenging for a police offer know if someone is using a cell phone while driving. Probably we just need a cultural shift to make people reluctant to use a phone (or even talk to their passenger) while driving. My guess is that we'll get self-driving cars first.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_and_driving_safet...

Edit: https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/MeasuringC... Don't talk to passengers folks! (like that's going to happen)

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I need to read those studies closely; but, I imagine there's a difference between gabbing about nothing and doing serious mental work when it comes to the amount of focus taken away by talking. Singing with the radio probably has similar focus requirements to gabbing. I have not done any tests on this; and we're not going to stop singing on the radio.

Fiddling with a phone is probably the most dangerous of phone related activities while driving, though. Looking and reading off the screen (texts), pushing capacitive spots on the screen to interact with it (changing songs), and so on.

Police most likely want eyes on the road, as even passive attention to the road is better than eyes completely off it.

[edit: replaced "be singing" with "stop singing" since that's what I meant to say]

I know there was a study and analysis a few years back that found the reason people are more distracted having a hands-free conversation in the car vs a conversation with someone next to them is that the person on the other end of a phone call doesn't have awareness to your situation. So, while someone talking with you while sitting next to you in the car will naturally quite down while a change in driving conditions happens (or even alert you), the person on the phone is unaware of it and demands more of your attention. I can't recall when or where I saw the study, unfortunately.

Maybe from the same study... IN addition to citing the advantages of conversing with a situation-aware passenger vs an unaware phone-caller, the study summary also made much of their finding that there is a significant cognitive load devoted to visualizing the person at the other end of a phone call. This visualization is not needed when the person is in the car.

It also mentioned that young children can cause dangerous distractions because they lack the knowledge to know when the driving has gotten tough.

That would make sense, too. In my own driving experience, most of the people that ride with me in the car in the front seat are of the mind "We're looking at the road", not "the driver is looking at the road, so I don't have to" as their general attitude; and when I've been under the weather, driving poorly, they've been the first to comment and require a fix to it.

As for the phone, they're also the hands that will affect my phone if we need to change settings on GPS or music or whatever, because they understand the safety precautions.

So, what you say makes sense at least anecdotally and mentally.

On a tangent, there seems to be an interesting difference in front-seat passengers who drive and those who don't. Often you'll see the drivers do a head-check with you as you approach an intersection. I have a few friends that don't drive, and I've never noticed any of them doing that subconscious check.

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