Older People Driving a High-Tech Automobile: Emergent Driving Routines and New Relationships with Driving

Advanced vehicle technologies (AVTs) (e.g., lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring) are sophisticated computer and electronically mediated communications that provide information to users, and, at times, assume control over parts of the driving task (e.g., automated braking). This article examines how AVTs are refashioning older people’s embodied relationships with driving, including driving routines, skills, sensuous dispositions, and modes of control that are considered integral to driving. Results from interviews with 35 older drivers driving a high-tech car call attention to the opportunities and challenges that entanglements with AVTs can present for aging drivers.