We already know how dangerous it is to be distracted while driving - which is exactly what happens when we try to hold a conversation with someone else. We also know that having a conversation with someone who is in the car with us is safer than trying to do so with someone on the phone. The reason for that is that the person in the car can see why we are pausing to negotiate a tricky spot of road, and so we don't feel as much of a social pressure to continue the flow of conversation. The person on the other end of the phone can't see what's going on, and so we worry about the awkwardness of a silence if we need to stop talking to concentrate.
Laws that say drivers can use hands-free to take phone calls, don't take into account this research. Hands-free sets mean we have our hands available for driving, and (hopefully) have to look down less for dialling etc. But the person we're talking to still can't see what we're doing, so we feel the pressure to continue talking smoothly.
Now, France has made the move to ban hands-free sets as well. It'll be illegal to use a hands-free headset, even for listening to a podcast or music. We think that's a pretty good move, and wonder if that'll be the case world-wide one day!
You can read more about this change here.
