Transference of intuition
You blunder about the pavement. too, while talking/texting on your mobile (but you're not so dangerous out of the car). My hypothesis is that you 'empathise' with the caller at the other end, and that your intuitive faculties go 'over there' instead of out to the fool driver in front. Chatting to a passenger is *nothing* like this - both of you have a survival interest in what is ahead, so it's closer to teamwork (with passengers like mine, anyway).