[Knitebane]

Most shrinks think it’s the conversation, as social animals we tend to focus strongly on our interactions with others. And a person on the other end of a phone call can’t see that you’re drifting all over the place the way a passenger can and bring your attention back to where it belongs.

Then why is talking on a cell phone okay as long as you are using a headset? The same conditions apply.

[discostu]

It shouldn’t be. But somebody decided the problem was the hand off the wheel not the brain off the task.

[Charles Martel]

Then why is talking on a cell phone okay as long as you are using a headset? The same conditions apply.

For that matter, passengers in the car conversing with the driver would raise the same concerns.