Are in-car tech and distraction-free driving mutually exclusive? On the one hand, we have automakers, who give a resounding “no,” with at least one spokesman pointing out that in-car tech is the lesser of two evils.

“If you don’t provide something that is useful, people will just use their smartphones, and we all know that’s the biggest driver distraction there is,” Audi spokesman Mark Dahncke told Reuters. That said, automakers make a lot of money every time someone ticks an option box for a $2,000 navigation/infotainment system, so we shouldn’t expect automakers to go along with what safety advocates like Joe Simitian say.

“I think they [the screens] raise serious public safety questions,” Simitian, a former legislator who led California’s push to ban cell phones while driving, told Reuters. That point of view is supported by at least one academic.

“You can’t be looking at a screen and be looking at the road at the same time,” said David Strayer, a professor of cognition and neural science at the University of Utah. These screens “are enabling activities that take your eyes off the road for longer than most safety advocates would say is safe.”