It’s the 21st century and technology is still on the rise, being incorporated into almost every aspect of our lives with the intent of becoming even more associated; leaving us questioning where it will be in just ten years. These advancements have changed home life, work life, infrastructure, music, and so on… In terms of music, instruments have now been replaced with electronics, and buying CDs and tapes replaced with streaming platforms such as Spotify and TIDAL; making how we can access music incredibly easy. The reason I brought this up is that I came across an interesting study the other day which looked at the way music affects the way in which we drive and the decisions we make. The study was called ‘Blame it on the boogie’ by UK car leasing firm All Car Leasing where they found that 72% of their respondents regularly turn their volume down when making a maneuver due to not being able to concentrate properly. The study also found that certain genres can make drivers more likely to receive speeding tickets and fines. So, these points made me wonder how exactly does technology affect our driving?
Music can easily be accessed through modernized cars, which either have an AUX cable or more popularly now, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. This software allows the driver to mirror their smartphone with their car to be able to access music, phone calls as well as apps with ease. However, in some countries, like the United Kingdom, it is illegal to use your phone whilst driving, so the likes of Apple CarPlay benefit British drivers; but in many people’s eyes, having an ‘inbuilt tablet’ is surely just the same. Even taking your eyes off the wheel for a second can result in a crash or dangerous driving. However, an interesting feature of Apple CarPlay is that you can reply to text messages through voice recognition, so I suppose you shouldn’t have to take your eyes off the wheel in the first place, even though we blatantly do.
