James Corden has a lot to answer for with his famous carpool karaoke videos, so much so that a Taiwanese company has now invented a mobile karaoke machine for in the car.
Carkit AI unveiled the new technology at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show and describes the innovation as ‘literally Car Pool Karaoke in a box’.
The device, which is nicknamed Roxie features professional sound effects and comes complete with a built-in Siri and Google Assistant enabled DJ, bringing a complete hands-free experience to the car.
Linking to the move popular music apps such as Spotify and Apple Music, Roxie comes with built-in vocal effects and a mixer which gives 3D surround sound and can even emulate a concert hall or a cathedral.
The microphone is hands-free and sticks to the dashboard and has a range which even extends to those in the back seat to ensure that it captures the vocals of everyone in the car.
Opinion is divided on whether the Roxie device will be deemed safe, research from 2005 conducted by Dr Nicola Dibben found that music is more effective for alertness than silence or conversation saying: “Singing while driving stimulates not only the mind but also the body which in turn produces heightened alertness and reduced fatigue”, said Dr Dibben. “Singing may be less distracting than conversation because drivers recall words to songs they already know, or because it is fairly easy to learn the words to music where it uses repeated lyric.”
However a report published last month warned that police officers may consider your singing or dancing in a car as dangerous driving if you were involved in an accident.