Just last month I would never have imagined I would be writing the words ‘Pokémon’ and ‘distracted driving’ in the same sentence. But, things changed on July 5, when Nintendo’s latest app was introduced to the world. Pokémon Go was first launched in Australia and New Zealand, followed by America, then Europe. Within just days it was trending on Twitter and was the talk of Facebook, and within a week it had reportedly been downloaded more times than dating app Tinder had since it was launched four years ago. By the middle of July, Pokémon Go was estimated to be on five per cent of smartphones and had apparently claimed the title of ‘most downloaded app ever’. It is therefore something of an understatement to say the game is proving a hit, so what’s the problem and how does it relate to distracted driving? The problem is not the app itself, but the fact that some of the people using it are finding the game so addictive they are continuing to play it while driving. (Author/publisher)
Abstract