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Nuance Automotive

Speech Recognition Reduces Driver Distractions

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Report: 2008 In-Car Driver Distraction Study

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Driver Distraction

Speech-recognition significantly reduces distractions and improves driving performance while selecting music, making calls and using navigation systems according to the In-Car Driver Distraction Study. The study reinforces the importance of Nuance’s high-quality speech recognition, natural language understanding and text-to-speech technology in dramatically reducing distractions while driving.

2008 In-Car Driver Distraction Study

A University of Braunschweig, Germany study compared the driving performance of test drivers controlling phone, navigation and entertainment solutions in cars manually and by voice.

Eyes on the Road

Analysis of drivers’ eye movements revealed that voice commands help drivers keep their eyes on the road, reducing driver distraction to almost zero for music selection and less than 10% for phone dialing and destination entry.

Reaction Time

  • When required to change lanes, the reaction times when drivers were using voice commands was consistently better than when controlling devices manually. For example, making a music selection using speech was 66% better for music selection versus manual input.

In-lane Deviation

  • Drivers showed significantly less lane deviation when controlling the tested devices by voice versus manual input – with speech input resulting in 60% less deviation from the ideal when selecting music and 50% less when entering a destination.

Swerving in Current Lane

  • Compared to speech input, drivers using manual input swerved within their lane 800% more for music selection, up to 1,200% more for navigation entry, and 300% more when dialing a phone.

Using the Phone

While most people think they are adept in dialing a mobile while driving, the study showed that speech input improved the ability to maintain the ideal car position by 19% when compared to manual dialing. Better still, speech input reduced reaction time by 24%.

Select Music

Using MP3 players safely can be a challenge. The average driver is 50% more distracted and takes more than two times longer to change lanes when selecting music manually. Driver distraction was 600% higher related to swerving within a lane without speech input.

Set Navigation Address

Using manual interfaces to enter data into a navigation system results in significant safety risks. In contrast, speech destination entry resulted in 10x less swerving while staying in a single lane, and 30% less deviation while changing lanes.