By Gary S. Vasilash

“Traffic congestion occurs when demand for roadway travel exceeds the supply of roadways. As vehicular traffic builds, drivers, freight movers and bus riders lose time and spend fuel unproductively.”—INRIX 2022 Global Traffic Scorecard

INRIX calculated that U.S. cities were among those that had significant levels of congestion.

As in having five of the top 10 urban areas that have plenty of hours lost. What’s more, there is no other country that has more than one spot in the top 10.

The cities where people crawl along during commutes for too long a time are:

2. Chicago (155 hours lost)

4. Boston (134)

5. New York (117)

8. Philadelphia (114)

9. Miami (105)

So one assumes that people optimize their time as best they can by eating, applying makeup, getting in a few pages of War and Peace, and doing other things that probably aren’t ideal for the situation.

Mercedes has a better alternative. It has developed the MBUX Virtual Assistant that the company says “is in tune with customer needs and uses generative AI and proactive intelligence to make life easy, convenient and comfortable.”

Certainly better than stewing in traffic.

What’s more, Mercedes has created more apps for its cars, like the one named MBUX Collectables, which allows the driver to check in on the world of NFTs, like Mercedes’ own NXT Superdackel collection, a digital riff on bobbleheads and the like.

One slight issue might be that the interest in NFTs seems to have waned considerably, so perhaps they may be developing an app for those interested in philatey or other image-oriented exercises.

Mercedes-AMG also announced this week at CES MBUX SOUND DRIVE, an audio execution that “uses software that allows music to react to the way the car is being driven, creating a harmonious relationship between motion and melody.”

The company worked on the development of this system with will.i.am, who said of it:

“Imagine a world where your car can become an instrument creating musical journeys. MBUX SOUND DRIVE enhances driving and sound technology, letting motorists reshape music just by driving. I’m excited to see how composers, producers, and songwriters will harness this to create new works and reimagine classics for motorist to drive to. MBUX SOUND DRIVE is not only a new frontier for music creation, but also opens up fresh, exciting and interactive listening experiences for drivers.”

Although Las Vegas is way down on the INRIX list at 127, with 41 hours lost per year to congestion, given the traffic on the Strip most people would probably prefer if drivers were paying attention to their driving rather than using something that lets “motorists reshape music just by driving.”

Attending CES was somewhat convenient for will.i.am as the Black Eyed Peas played the Venetian for New Year’s.