Texting while driving using Google Glass™: Promising but not distraction-free.

Area of Science:

• Human-computer interaction
• Transportation safety
• Cognitive psychology

Background:

• Texting while driving is a prevalent and dangerous behavior.
• Previous research indicates significant driving impairment from manual smartphone use.
• Head-mounted displays (HMDs) offer a novel interface for mobile device interaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of texting via Google Glass on driving performance.
• To compare the safety of HMD-based texting with traditional smartphone texting methods.
• To assess driver workload across different texting interfaces.

Main Methods:

• Experienced drivers completed a car-following task under four conditions: undistracted driving, manual smartphone texting, vocal smartphone texting, and vocal Google Glass texting.
• Driving performance metrics included lane excursions, speed variability, and braking responses.
• Subjective workload was measured using a standardized questionnaire.

Main Results:

• All texting conditions significantly impaired driving performance compared to undistracted driving.
• Manual smartphone texting resulted in the worst driving performance, with increased lane excursions and control variability.
• Vocal texting via Google Glass led to fewer lane excursions and lower workload than vocal smartphone texting.

Conclusions:

• Texting using Google Glass, while still impairing, appears to be a potentially safer alternative to smartphone texting.
• HMDs and speech recognition may mitigate some risks associated with in-vehicle device use.
• Further research is needed to fully understand the long-term implications of HMDs on driver attention and safety.