AutoJammin

Ismir 2014, 2014

This paper builds an understanding of how music is currently experienced by a social group travelling together in a car-how songs are chosen for playing, how music both reflects and influences the group's mood and social interaction, who supplies the music, the hardware/software that supports song selection and presentation. This fine-grained context emerges from a qualitative analysis of a rich set of ethnographic data (participant observations and interviews) focusing primarily on the experience of in-car music on moderate length and long trips. We suggest features and functionality for music software to enhance the social experience when travelling in cars, and prototype and test a user interface based on design suggestions drawn from the data. 2. BACKGROUND Most work investigating the experience of music in cars focuses on single-users, (e.g. [4], [5]). Solo drivers are free to create their own audio environment: "the car is a space of performance a nd communication where drivers report being in dialogue with the radio or singing in their own auditized/privatized space" [5]. Walsh [21] notes that "a

2011

RoadMusic is an artistic project, which generates music for in-car listening, from information gathered while driving. We will describe in detail how the system works, and briefly define our intentions in initiating this project. We will demonstrate how, through the musical format that is generated from the data, there is a possible subliminal perception of the situation. We will suggest ways in which this can be regulated to respond to criteria of security and usefulness. We will describe future research using RoadMusic in electric vehicles.

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 1999

This study investigated the effects of the nature of music and a concurrent task on measures of task performance and musical preference. Subjects completed 5 laps of a computer motor racing game whilst listening to either arousing or relatively unarousing music in either the presence or absence of a backward-counting task. Both these manipulations affected performance on the game with arousing music and backward-counting leading to slower lap times than relatively unarousing music and the absence of the backward-counting task. Backward-counting led to lower liking for the music than did the absence of this task. These results support the idea that music and the concurrent task competed for a limited processing resource. The results also indicated that liking for the music was positively related to task performance, and in conjunction these findings seem to suggest a direct link between music and the listening context.

Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics, 2011

There is a belief that driving competency and style is influenced by music choices, yet there is little scientific study into the effects music choices have on the way people drive. This paper describes a preliminary explorative study conducted to find evidence of music influencing driving behaviour to justify further research into the area. Three main effects were considered in this study: 1) that music either enhances or impedes the driving activity; 2) that driving behaviour is influenced by whether the subject likes the music being played; 3) that driving behaviour is changed by the tempo of the music being played. The speed holding ability of 39 experienced drivers employed in a large company was tested using a vehicle simulator to observe evidence that speed holding control is influenced by one or more of the main effects.

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2012

Young drivers listen to highly energetic aggressive music of a fast-tempo and accentuated beat at elevated volumes. They are not aware of the effects that music may have on perception, performance, and control of the vehicle. The crux of the matter is not the use of music per se, but rather the abuse of music that is hazardous. The current study developed a viable alternative music background for in-car listening towards improved driver safety. After a group of everyday listeners confirmed the experimental music as suitable for in-car music listening, 22 drivers each drove four trips while listening to either preferred music CDs or the experimental background, then 31 drivers each drove ten trips while listening to the alternative background. Study A demonstrated criterion related validity, although the experimental background preoccupied less attention. While Study B indicated habituation effects, drivers reported ever increasing levels of positive mood states throughout.

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON ACOUSTICS AND MUSIC, 2020

The attention level of car drivers is affected by many factors. Music is one of the most importantones, but its effect is rarely studied. Music can affect driving style in both positive and negative ways, as itcan reduce fatigue but also increase the level of distraction or aggression. This article presents anexperimental investigation of the effects of music on driver attention level. Several measurements on avehicle simulator were done to collect data that demonstrates the relationship between music and theperformance of the car driver. The simulation measured performance under three conditions - relaxationmusic, rock music and silence. Additionally, the measurements were repeated in both fresh and tired states.The results are, in some aspects, different from our expectations - for example, relaxation music improvedreaction time but also correlated with a higher occurrence of inappropriate steering actions. Deeperunderstanding of how the music and noise affect the driver’s actions...

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2013

In the current study, we aimed at exploring the influence of music on driving performance, arousal and mental effort while carrying out a monotonous car-following task in a lowcomplexity traffic setting. Participants (N = 47) were randomly assigned to loud and moderate volume music groups, and completed one drive in the simulator with music and another drive without music (control condition). In addition, during both of the drives we monitored driving performance and recorded participants' heart rate to track physiological indications of arousal and mental effort. Results revealed that listening to music had no effect on accuracy of car-following, and even had a positive effect on response latencies to speed changes of the lead vehicle and on lateral control. Importantly, arousal was higher in the presence than absence of music irrespective of the volume level, suggesting that loud volume music was not more arousing than moderate volume music. In addition, mental effort, which was inferred from the physiological measurement of heart-rate variability, did not differ in conditions with and without music. These findings indicate that listening to music does not impair performance in a monotonous car-following task, and might even improve some aspects of performance as a result of increased arousal.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess how scrolling through playlists on an MP3 player or its aftermarket controller affects driving performance and to examine how drivers adapt device use to driving demands. Background: Drivers use increasingly complex infotainment devices that can undermine driving performance. The goal activation hypothesis suggests that drivers might fail to compensate for these demands, particularly with long tasks and large search set sizes. Method: A total of 50 participants searched for songs in playlists of varying lengths using either an MP3 player or an aftermarket controller while negotiating road segments with traffic and construction in a medium-fidelity driving simulator. Results: Searching through long playlists (580 songs) resulted in poor driving performance and required more long glances (longer than 2 s) to the device compared with other playlist lengths. The aftermarket controller also led to more long glances compared with the MP3 player. Drivers did not adequately adapt their behavior to roadway demand, as evident in their degraded driving performance. No significant performance differences were found between short playlists, the radio-tuning task, and the no-task condition. Conclusion: Selecting songs from long playlists undermined driving performance, and drivers did not sufficiently adapt their use of the device to the roadway demands, consistent with the goal activation hypothesis. The aftermarket controller degraded rather than enhanced performance. Application: Infotainment systems should support drivers in managing distraction. Aftermarket controllers can have the unintended effect of making devices carried into the car less compatible with driving.These results can motivate development of new interfaces as alternatives to scrolling lists.

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2019

Various studies offer insightful perspectives on the potential impact of music-listening on driving performance. These studies, however, present conflicting views on the effect of music as either hindering or enhancing driving performance and advance inconclusive claims regarding how and to what extent specific music parameters affect vehicular performance. In this study, therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of relevant studies. First, we identified experimental studies that measured the effects of musiclistening on driving performance through database searches using multiple variants including ''car", ''driv*", ''perf*", and ''music*"; of the 118 publications reviewed, 12 met the inclusion criteria for the current meta-analysis. Second, we coded independent variables-i.e., tempo, volume, instrumentation, familiarity, musical style, the music's source, and whether music was selected by the researchers or the drivers-and dependent variables-i.e., vehicular longitudinal and lateral control, driver reaction time, traffic signal violations, collisions, and driving scores. Third, we ran mixed-effects and random-effects models to identify both general tendencies and more particular trends related to the effect of music-listening on driving performance-driving performance is here understood as the combination of vehicle manipulation and road navigation. Consistent with anecdotal evidence, the results of this meta-analysis show that music-listening has a statistically significant detrimental effect on driving performance, specifically for collisions and longitudinal control. In contrast with anecdotal evidence, however, the results of this meta-analysis show a detrimental effect associated with music-listening at soft volumes and no significant difference in driving performance associated with tempo. The study's findings contributed to the development of a process model, and the concluding discussion offers suggestions for future empirical investigations related to music and driving.

The purpose of this essay is to assess how the advent of autonomous car technology will have an impact on the way designers create the experiences and interfaces that are essential to cars as a form of transport.