First published 23 May 2024

Is your car neurotic or anxious?

I’m a relatively calm person.  I do have a few things that wind me up consistently (well, what other purposes are there for siblings…?), but on the whole, probably due to the many years I have been in and around the holistic health space, I have mainly wrangled that inner voice, the overthinking and the anxious feelings.

However… I am wondering if newer cars are designed to reverse all that!

A fellow coach and one of my accountability buddies recommended the book ‘Soundtracks’ by Jon Acuff to me recently.  It’s all about overthinking and the soundtrack that is playing in our minds.  As I was driving home this morning from a networking meeting, he read one of a collection of essays he wrote that he decided not to publish.  It was titled ‘Anxious Cars’ (interestingly it’s in the audio version but not the paper copy of the book!).

As I was listening, I was smiling, nodding along, and pondering – as I do…

From Confident to Anxious

He started by talking about older cars being confident and the only thing that they over really showed on a regular basis was the fuel gauge gently moving towards empty, or if ‘disaster’ struck you would see the check engine light (and if you remember that episode of Friends, you could usually ignore it for a while…).

Now however, there are bells and whistles, and flashing lights to tell you about everything! 

Whether it is the fuel running low (with a visual and audible countdown), the tyre pressure, that your brakes need to be checked or the countdown to the service due date.

Then there is the moment you put the car in reverse and the tension mounts – the radio volume is turned down and the beeps start along with a graphic with flashing lights, or perhaps even a camera view! 

And, the part that really resonated for me was when he mentioned that the cars now tell you with lights flashing when there is someone beside you in the next lane.  And they keep flashing the whole time the other cars are there.

I recently drove my parent’s new car and it’s even more neurotic! 

It tries to nudge you back if you drift over the lines – even if the reason you ‘drifted’ was to avoid the parked cars on the side of the road. 
It gets upset if you go too fast (as the front-facing cameras are reading the road signs – problematic when the side street has a lower limit than the main street you are on if the sign is even remotely visible!).
It gets upset if you change lines without an indicator and, I am sure there are many other situations that upset it.

I do wonder if all these ‘wonderful improvements’ are actually improvements or if they are designed to increase the blood pressure of the driver as they begin to feel not so silently judged over every aspect of their driving – and that’s before I even start on the voices of Sat Nav!

I think I’ll stick to my 12-year-old car for a little while longer, even if it means I am not allowed to drive in any city centre of Scotland anymore! (for those not in the know – the LEZ or Low Emission Zones are popping up everywhere – and if they are all like Glasgow there is an ever-doubling fine for driving in the city – starting from £60!).
 

Do you Feel as Anxious as a New Car?

If you don’t need the assistance of your car to feel anxious, as that’s your usual postcode, I have many tips and techniques to help turn down the volume on all of these beeps, and the brightness of all the flashing lights, just get in touch for a chat and we can discuss some quick wins to help, and perhaps over time we will be able to switch off the default settings, allowing calm, peace, and quiet to be the norm once more!

If you have an audible subscription, Soundtracks is available and included in the Plus catalogue for no extra charge.  I’m about halfway through and finding it very interesting so far!  I’m sure it is also available on other platforms.