For my Mid-Term Project, I chose to analyze Apple CarPlay and its user experience as it relates to user dependency. With a sample size of 20-30 undergraduate students at Lehigh University, the goal was to assess how important this technology is to users, as well as whether or not they like or dislike this feature, how often they use it, and simply, whether or not they have the feature.

I asked 7 questions in the survey to get a good sense of the relationship the users have with CarPlay. These questions ranged from whether they liked the technology itself, to how important it would be to have it when looking at buying a new car, and what apps they utilized the most when using the technology. I recently bought a new car in 2020 that has CarPlay, and I tend to use Waze and Spotify the most when my phone is connected to it, which is why it was no surprise that students my age would also use these apps the most. Every participant had responded with music, whether that be Apple Music or Spotify, in their list of apps they use most frequently. Also significant to note is how many people find CarPlay to be a dealbreaker on a new car if the feature wasn’t included in the car they were looking at. More than half of the respondents ranked it a 5 on a 1 to 5 linear scale, with 5 being an absolute necessity when buying a new car.

From this survey, I have been reassured on how much I think our generation is dependent on technology. As we all know, using your phone while driving is not something people should do, but CarPlay found a way to ensure that regardless of if you are driving, you can still access what you need to, whether it be urgent or not. This technology, in my opinion, has become a prominent feature in the rapid development and expansion of technological dependency. I would have preferred to get a more randomized sample, as I am sure the results of my research would have been different, but, nonetheless, I think it is pretty clear that millennials and Gen Z have a relationship with technology that has reached a point of concern for society as a whole.