Study Rates Car 'Infotainment Systems' for Levels of Distraction

The study on car infotainment system distraction was conducted by researchers at the University of Utah who used test vehicles and drivers equipped with heart-rate monitors and equipment to measure reaction times in traffic scenarios.

Of the six in-vehicle systems tested, Toyota's Entune system received the best distraction rating, while Chevrolet's MyLink infotainment system resulted in the highest distraction level. According to the researches, "MyLink imposed mental demands approaching the difficulty of conducting math calculations." The second-best system was Hyundai's Blue Link, followed in increasing distraction ratings by Chrysler's Uconnect, Ford's Sync, and Mercedes's Command.

In general, the study determined that "simple commands that are short in duration were found to be no more demanding on drivers than listening to an audiobook," writes Jon Hilkevitch of the Chicago Tribune. With these results in hand, the AAA Foundation "advised automakers to invest in systems that minimize the opportunity to compose messages, versus listening to messages. The research also led to the conclusion that there is little to be gained by improving the quality of synthetic speech that is used by Siri and similar technologies, because both synthetic voices and the natural voices used in audiobooks both generated a moderate level of distraction."