Longing for the days when smart cars will take over and you can just sit back and enjoy the ride? Wish you could have your own onboard ‘Jarvis’ to tell you what’s up ahead, what’s coming down the road, or what that weird noise is coming from your engine? While we’re not quite there yet (but it is coming!), there are plenty of smartphone and tablet apps out there that can help make your dumb car at least a little smarter. If you’ve taken a look at the App Store or Google Play recently, you know that they’re both cluttered with potentially useless apps that are little more than a waste of time and money. How do you figure out which ones are worth your time? Here are 9 of the best apps for drivers.
Waze
Looking for a way to dodge those traffic snarls on your way home from the office? Waze is one of the most popular navigation apps, and it’s pretty fully featured, as well. Information is crowd-sourced and real-time, so you’re warned well ahead of time about things that might add extra time to your drive.
Canary
Got a teen driver? Got a case of the nerves? We feel for you, but Canary can help. It’s available for both iOS and Android, and it’s a free app. Canary is all about keeping tabs on your teen driver’s phone use (not necessarily their driving habits). It’s really geared for making sure your teen isn’t doing something dumb like texting behind the wheel. It uses GPS information combined with phone usage records to tell you if your kid is texting, talking on the phone or doing something else with the device at speeds higher than 12 MPH.
