7 Does texting and driving change how you drive in video games?

Brandon M.

Rationale- I wanted to find out if this is true. Since I can’t drive a real car, I chose a video racing game Grand Theft Auto Five (GTA V) to test the idea that texting and driving is dangerous.

Procedure- each driver would drive the same course but with someone talking to them and holding a conversation keeping track of time to complete the course and any accidents or violations. Finally each driver would drive three times while answering three texts while keeping track of time to complete the course while recording any accidents or violations. I found an average for each driver driving with no distractions, driving while having a conversation, and driving while texting along with tallying the number of accidents and/or violations.

My average time driving without any distractions was 3.18min, with talking 3.24 min, and while texting 4.01min. I had a two violations while texting: hitting two motorcyclists and a head on accident. My mom’s average time with no distractions was 4.52 min, while talking 3.31 with four violations, and 4.28 with seven violations. My mom’s friend “Rod” had an average time of 4.26 minutes with no distractions, 3.38 while talking with one violation and 4.23 while texting with four violations.

Data Analysis- I learned that when you are texting and driving it will change your score and increase your violations. My hypothesis was right because my hypothesis was that when we text and drive it will change or mess our score up. My experiment was accurate because in real life not a “video game” people get into accidents while texting and driving, calling someone while driving, and not paying attention.