I have driven to work (about 18 miles) and been followed by the same car nearly the whole way, and the woman driving it had a cellphone to her ear the entire time and her mouth was moving vigorously as she talked.
Who the hell could talk to someone like that for a solid hour early in the morning?
I was amazed. I don’t really like talking to people on the phone at all, and DON’T while I drive unless it is a work emergency and I cannot pull off.
Oddly, I listen to audiobooks constantly (and have for the last 15 years)while I drive, and it does not distract me in the least. I feel completely tuned into the car, the road, and the ambient traffic situation.
However, in the very few circumstances I talk on the phone, I feel completely unsafe, as if my mind cannot handle talking to a person who is not in the car and navigate traffic at the same time.
I have come to the conclusion it is the way the mind handles the routing and processing of information that manifests itself this way.
Also, I have an iPhone, and it is no problem at all to use Siri to send a text. But talking on a phone does something unsafe.
But I do know I was not nearly as attentive as when I was not talking on the phone.