A recent study published by Jerry, an online insurance comparison service, found that people who use iPhones are worse drivers than those who own a phone that runs on Android, and no one is surprised, not even this writer who is one of the former. There is a sense of elitism surrounding iPhone users, who are often associated with affluence, the upper class (at least in the technorati society) and which differentiates the “cool kids” from the crowd.
So, it’s no surprise that even on the road, they are a bit of a douche.
Jerry looked at data collected on the driving behaviour of 20,000 drivers, covering a total of 13 million kilometres of driving and the results was clear: Android users are safer drivers at every turn (figuratively and most likely literally), regardless of age, gender, marital status, education and credit rating.
iPhone users achieved lower safe-driving scores in all categories that were looked at, which are speeding, distraction, turning, braking and accelerating. The greatest disparity was in the category of distraction—iPhone users just can’t seem to keep their hands off their phones even while driving.
When you delve into the level of education, even Android users without a high school diploma scored higher than iPhone owners with bachelor’s or master’s degrees…and even PhD holders. This goes to show that being educated doesn’t make you more civilized (on the road).
Now, why is there a clear difference between iPhone and Android users in regard to their driving behaviour? One of the reasons that Jerry suggests is that iPhone users tend to be younger and younger drivers are more inclined to drive recklessly. However, even younger Android users outscored their same-age iPhone counterparts and that is consistent across all age groups.
This writer suggests that perhaps the reason is similar to the findings from another study entitled “Not only assholes drive Mercedes”, which determined that luxury cars did not make jerks of the drivers but rather, jerks are drawn to luxury cars. So, the same could be assumed for the iPhone, and that is those with less agreeable personality traits, and by extension their driving behaviours, are drawn to the Apple device.
