just as distracting as typing them. here s abc s paula faris. reporter: we have shown how distracting driving can be, whether with your kids in the back seat or phone in hand. when i took my eyes off the highway for just over 2 seconds, i traveled half the length of a football field. and while you might think using your phone s voice to text feature is making your ride safer, a study out today says it is just as dangerous as manual texting. in fact, this first of its kind research, a small study of 45 drivers. claims that driving performance slows down while you text, whether it is manual or voice to text. this report shows you are in just as much danger when you are using a voice driven way to text as if you are sitting in the driver s seat typing away with your phones. reporter: you are 23 times more likely to get into a car crash while texting. so the consumer is now driving automakers to install technology they assume makes the car safer into their vehicles.