We’re living in a technological age, a world where digital devices are absolutely essential for our personal and professional lives. Almost everyone owns and uses a smartphone nowadays, and there are countless apps you can download directly onto your Android or iOS device in order to enhance your life in a wide range of ways, even while sitting behind the wheel of your car.
Of course, we’re not recommending handling or using your phone while driving. In fact, distracted driving is responsible for the shocking numbers of deaths and injuries every single year. However, modern app developers have come up with some clever ways to get around this issue, making their services much simpler and safer to use in the car and even designing certain apps with drivers in mind, letting you keep your eyes on the road while still getting the benefits of the app.
Here are some key app categories that can enhance your journeys, as well as a few examples for each one.
Safe Driving Apps
The idea of apps that make hitting the open road safer might seem strange at first. After all, using your phone while driving can be dangerous, but these apps have been cleverly put together to make them perfectly safe to use in a hands-free way, so you don’t need to keep looking at the screen or fiddling around with different buttons to enjoy the benefits they have to offer.
Safe driving apps can vary in function and design. Some of them will track your driving performance and allow you to become a better driver as you go, while others are designed to help you keep in touch with your friends if you get into any danger, stay aware of security risks in the places you visit, protect your personal information on public Wi-Fi networks, and much more besides. Examples include ICE, bSafe, and CDC TravWell.
GPS Apps
GPS apps can also be hugely useful for drivers on the road, removing the need for you to invest in a separate, expensive GPS device and letting you turn your personal phone into a navigational aid. GPS apps like Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze can guide you around while on the roads, telling you when to turn, where to go, and how to avoid traffic jams and road hazards nearby.
Best of all, these apps are designed to be super safe to use. They usually feature voice commands and clear, crisp audio that will tell you all the directions you need to know, meaning that you won’t have to keep looking across at the screen and check up on the map to avoid getting lost.
Parking Apps
We’ve all been there – you find yourself in a big city, perhaps for the first time, with cars all around you and no clear parking spots anywhere to be found! It can be quite challenging and frustrating to drive around and around in circles searching for a place to park, and people can often get angry and tired with all that wasted time.
Fortunately, parking apps can help to make this process a lot simpler. There are several parking apps out there, including the likes of Spot Hero, Park Whiz, and Parkopedia. These apps allow you to book parking spots in advance to save time, or can guide you to a local parking lot or free parking street near you when you arrive at your destination.
Entertainment Apps
Gearing up for a long haul drive? Perhaps you’re heading across state or simply making the same old commute to work each day, sitting silently in traffic, and wishing for time to move a little faster. Well, entertainment apps can make every journey much more enjoyable, without becoming a distraction. Some studies have even shown that listening to music or podcasts while driving can feel more relaxed on the road.
Entertainment apps like Spotify, Soundcloud, Audible, and Pandora can help you listen to podcasts, radio stations, your favorite bands and artists, personally customized song playlists, and even audiobooks too, passing the time much more smoothly and seamlessly as you drive around. You can set them up before you start the car and then let them run, without needing to make any adjustments as you go.
Conclusion
At first, the thought of using your phone in any way while driving might seem too risky to even consider, but there are many great apps out there that won’t just improve your driving experiences but can actually make them safer, reducing the need for you to drive around in search of a parking place, get lost trying to find your destination, or develop bad driving habits. Download a few today to see what these apps can do for you!
