Speech and driving - solution or problem?

Besides travel-related information (speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, and so on), driver-related information (navigation devices, telephone calls, email and so on) is now an increasing feature of modern-day driving. In order to process this information and still be able to drive safely at the same time, an information management system in the vehicle would seem to be necessary. Speech interfacing offers a good solution as verbal interactions use resources that are not needed when driving. However, in practice, experiments have shown that verbal interactions may distract the driver from the primary task. It is thus crucially important that verbal interactions are designed in such a way that the ´driving´ task remains the focus of attention for the driver