iPhone Drivers Are Twice as Likely to Stream Netflix Behind the Wheel and the New Data Is Bonkers

Here is a number that will probably annoy somebody you know. iPhone and Apple CarPlay users are more than twice as likely as Android users to video chat, scroll Instagram, stream Netflix or Hulu, and snap photos and videos while driving. That is not a typo. Twice. Behind. The. Wheel.

It comes from new 2026 research on distracted driving, and the deeper you read, the weirder the numbers get. Sixteen percent of iPhone users said they never get distracted while driving. For Android users that number was 23 percent, and for everyone else on other mobile operating systems it climbed to 38 percent. So iPhone owners are both the most likely to do risky stuff at the wheel and the least likely to admit they ever get distracted.

That second part might be the real story. The same research found that 69 percent of people who admitted to 20 or more distracted-driving behaviors in the past year still rated themselves as more attentive than the average driver. Which is mathematically impossible and also extremely human. We all think we are better than the average driver. The average driver disagrees with us about themselves too.

If you are tempted to write this off as a few bored teens, do not. Distracted driving violations have jumped 57 percent since 2022. That is despite miles driven only going up about 2 percent in the same window. Translation: we are driving roughly the same amount but doing way more dumb stuff while we do it.

The age breakdown is the part that surprises people. The biggest spikes are not Gen Z. Drivers aged 36 to 45 and seniors 66 and older both posted increases above 70 percent. Middle-aged parents juggling work calls in the school pickup line. Retirees who finally figured out their phones during the pandemic and have never put them down since. That is the demographic running up the score.

Why iPhone users specifically

Nobody has nailed down a single reason, but a couple of theories make sense. CarPlay is genuinely good. It hands you a giant dashboard screen, voice control, and a frictionless way to push your texts, calls, podcasts, and apps right onto the center stack. The line between "managing the car" and "using your phone" gets blurry. When everything feels built into the car, it feels safer. It is not actually safer. It is just more convenient, which is the most dangerous illusion in modern driving.

Android Auto exists too, and works similarly well. But the iPhone ecosystem has a longer head start on integration and a much higher share of premium users, who tend to drive newer cars with bigger screens. Bigger screen, more apps, more shiny things tugging at your eyeballs at 70 miles per hour.

What actually works

Telling someone "put the phone down" has never worked, including when you say it to yourself. Stuff that actually moves the needle:

Turn on Do Not Disturb While Driving and let it auto-respond to texts. iPhones have had this feature for years and almost nobody uses it. Set up a single dashboard view in CarPlay for navigation and audio only, and stop opening anything else. Drop the phone into a cupholder or center console where you cannot see notifications light up. And if you are streaming video while driving, please just stop. There is no version of that story that ends well.

The real takeaway from the data is uncomfortable. The driver who thinks they are the safe one is often the one running through six apps in the left lane. If that lands a little close to home, you are not alone. The first step is admitting it. The second is being a tiny bit boring for the next thirty minutes of your commute.