Voice recognition came a long way, but still has its flaws... Even today it picked up the wrong words when I was asking the manager about a document... Yes, like I'll use dog mints in a business setting
. California does allow for voice recognition or other uses of the phone (e.g. music or GPS), but we were among the first states to apply the handsfree law.
In my opinion, all it did for some douchebags was just shift where they're holding the phone. I know someone that texts/drives all the time, and before the law, she held it at eye level and drove just fine. Now, it's more like either trying to get it to say the right words by talking like a robot (which is OK), but the dangerous part is when the phone messes up a word and she has to hide it near her lap and take her eyes completely off the road, and I tried telling that idiot to focus on the road, no matter how many airbags her frickin' Benz has (and yes, here's a hint: she's from a nation that has ignorance and self-serving deeply ingrained into their culture, plus a widely known stereotype for bad drivers).
But whatever, seems like every law these days must stoop to the lowest common denominator, and here I was hoping for Darwin's Law to take effect and those idiots that put other people's lives in danger get what they deserve in the form of a brick wall and a sudden turn [/sarcasm].