Speech Heads, mark down another tick in the distrubingly thick book of Awful Things That More People Than You Would Think Do While They Drive.
A recently released Vlingo-commissioned study executed by Toluna found that 26 percent of U.S. drivers willingly admit to driving while texting (DWT, Vlingo calls it), despite bans, and despite reports of sickening, face-smashing, hellfire accident reports about hapless souls who texted behind the wheel.
According to l’Agence France-Presse, which reported on the Vlingo study, “Last year, authorities in Los Angeles said the conductor of a train involved in a rail crash that left 25 people dead was sending text messages on his mobile phone during working hours.”
No indication if “during working hours” means while he was supposed to be conducting his train.
The Vlingo study maintains that Tennessee is the worst offender in the Union. A whopping 42 percent of Tennesseans distractedly TXT things to their contacts like lolz! can’t wait to c u 2nite while operating a motor vehicle.
Arizona had the lowest reported incidence with only 18 percent, making them more conscientious drivers or just better liars.
Age-wise, 60 percent of 16 to 19 year-olds admit to DWT, while 49 percent of 20 to 24 year-olds proffered their own confessions. Numbers drop off as age increases. Only 13 percent of respondents in their 50s came forward with admissions of DWT-guilt
The incidence of DWT coincides with an overall rise in text messaging. The study found that two thirds of Americans are now texting, up from a little more than half last year.
Perhaps hypocritically, 83 percent of respondents said that DWT should be illegal—-despite many doing it in places where it is illegal like D.C. (the number for D.C. must be higher than 18 percent according to Vlingo’s findings).
The report goes on to point out that though most people think it should be illegal, it is only illegal in seven states and in one of them, Rhode Island, only for drivers under the age of 18—-a subtextual push for political reform?
It’s not hard to see how these results would favor a company in the business of doing voice-to-text work and voice search work. A total ban on DWT, which exceptions for speech-driven iterations, would be a great boon to the company as well as others like it.
As me, I would just feel safer if there was a ban on my brother Adam B. driving—-speech enabled or not.
Our own research shows numbers that are even higher than those reported in this study (perhaps some users were embarrassed to admit it?), which is why we’ve been working on a solution to this issue since day 1.