RESPONSIBLE DRIVING IN THE AGE OF SMARTPHONES: APPLIED RESEARCH FOR IMPROVING ROAD SAFETY IN THE MOTOR CITY

Abstract

Smartphones have become ubiquitous commodities in our contemporary lives and essential to our daily experiences. With limited public transportation in the United States and dependence on cars, the combination of smartphones and driving raises important questions of safety. We discuss our collaboration with Chevrolet-GM in Detroit in product development and user experience research, namely beta-testing a mobile phone app that was developed by Chevrolet to eliminate texting while driving, thereby improving car and road safety. We illustrate that the heightened awareness of distracted driving to self and others created spaces for young adult drivers to demonstrate their moral personhood through the care of and for others in their individual use of the app and in their promotion of its use to family members and friends. The practical applications of this finding resulted in a successful app product and its launch campaign, which incorporated the emerging insights from this study.