When iPhone took a giant step last year and included a “Do Not Disturb” auto text function for drivers on its iOS 11, it was assumed the feature would cut down on distracted driving.
In 2015, the National Highway & Transportation Administration reported that distracted driving killed 3,477 people and injured even more: 391,000.
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But does the function actually work? Business Insider reports on driving data pulled from insurance comparison website EverQuote, which found that, yes, drivers who enabled the setting did use their phones less.
Everquote found that 70 percent of people in its study kept the DND While Driving feature turned on after Apple released it last September. And between September 19 and October 25 last year, people with DND on used their phones 8% less, according to the study.
The 2018 report, which examined 781 million miles of driving data, also found that states with laws prohibiting phone use while driving showed the least phone use while driving.
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The states with the worst driving scores are Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The states with the best driving scores are Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, and Idaho.
A surprising statistic: drivers age 17 and under were the most cautious when it comes to speeding.
According to EverQuote, drivers in the US, on average, used their phones on more than a third of their trips. And that among trips with phone use, the average drive time was 29 minutes and drivers spent more than three minutes on the phone. “To put this in perspective, taking your eyes off the road to read a text for just five seconds at 55 mph is like driving more than the length of a football field blindfolded.”
