THERE MAY BE A BIOLOGICAL reason that drivers are getting worse and worse, despite ever-improving driver aids and smarter cars.

We are often told that change is changing faster than anything else, so think about this for a minute (if you can stay focused for that long).

In 2004, it was determined that the average person was able to focus on a task for 150 seconds. By 2024, that had dropped to just 47 seconds.

Or try this: in 15 minutes, a smartphone imparts as much information as the average human, 50 years ago, was exposed to in one week.

Let’s take a look at map-reading for a moment (still with us?)

The part of the brain responsible for reading maps, navigation and spatial memory is the hippocampus. Research indicates that this part of the brain can physically change in size and structure.

Studies most famously conducted on London cab drivers showed that years of learning complex spatial maps led to them having a larger posterior hippocampus than the public at large.

A similar occurrence was observed more generally, too. Late last century, studies showed that the hippocampus was widely seen to have grown, mainly because everyone had to read maps. However, early in this century it was discovered that the average size of the hippocampus was shrinking back to the size it had been at the beginning of the 1900s. The reason? The spread of GPS technology meant people had less dependence on maps and resulted in a decline in hippocampus-dependent spatial memory.

So it may not be your imagination. Drivers really are becoming less capable.

Thank you for your attention.