Cars have always been considered sexy and car sex has been celebrated in song, film and works of fiction. A new study looks at whether those days have passed.DeluXe-PiX/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Love is all around us, but it only gets the full-bore commercial treatment on Valentine’s Day. Each February 14, couples perform the store-bought ceremony of pre-planned passion. Flowers are purchased, chocolates nibbled and wine chilled.
For many decades cars have been romantic engines. In the roaring twenties, the mobile privacy of the hard-top roof turned automobiles into rolling bedrooms. Bench seats made a nice substitute for a twin bed. Cars have always been considered sexy and “car sex” has been celebrated in song (Meatloaf’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” and LL Cool J’s “Back Seat”), on screen (Oscar-winning Crash and 2021 Palme d’Or Winner Titane) and in countless works of fiction. There are too many country and western songs about making love in cars to list.
Have those days passed? Has the automobile lost its shine?
When you check the latest highlights in car romance, the signs aren’t encouraging. A woman in Kansas identified as “M.O.” is seeking US$1-million from insurer GEICO, claiming she contracted the human papillomavirus (HPV) when making love in a Hyundai. Her story was first reported by Debra Cassens Weiss in the American Bar Association Journal and followed up for Forbes. Why would she think GEICO should pay for her misfortune? Apparently, the plaintiff reached a US$5.2-million settlement with the “M.B”, the man whom she maintains gave her HPV. The catch, he wasn’t on the hook for any of it; the funds – if any were forthcoming – had to come from his insurance company. “GEICO claimed that it wasn’t told of the arbitration,” writes Weiss. “So it wouldn’t intervene and be heard, and so M.O. could obtain an artificially inflated award.” In October, GEICO won a ruling to have M.O. and M.B. identified in up-coming court proceedings.
A couple having an automotive encounter in England flipped their Yaris and had to be rescued by police. The police had some fun with the mishap and tweeted, “At an undisclosed location in Derbyshire the couple occupying this Yaris had parked up and were strengthening their relationship. Whilst doing so the handbrake has become disengaged and it rolled down a hill before flipping on its side.”
These tales do not exactly have the makings of a Hallmark movie.
The Golden Rule of car romance is “park the car.” The vehicle should be stopped. In the last century, “parking” was code for using your car as a love nest. Operating your vehicle while engaged in ars amatoria is dangerous and yet, 32.8 per cent of men and 9.3 per cent of women surveyed in 2014 admitted to having sex while in a moving vehicle. A recent study found that, out of 106 media reports of sex while driving, 40.5 per cent resulted in a serious crash, injury or fatality.
It’s this love-on-the-go practice that spurred academics including Australia’s James David Albert Newton to examine how the phenomenon is portrayed online. Newton and his fellow researchers examined “sexual activity while driving among dyadic vehicle occupants (i.e. a driver and a passenger),” a phenomenon that “resides at the intersection of sex and road safety research fields.” Their 2022 paper “Sexual behaviours among dyadic vehicle occupants” reports the findings.
The researchers wanted to discover how the sexual scripts participants follow are related to risk and the perception of risk and to better understand “the interactions between sexual activity and driver behaviour and the public health discipline by identifying determinants and risk factors of this risky behaviour.”
The study had some acknowledged limitations. They analyzed the most-viewed sexually explicit dyadic material, both “straight” and “gay,” on Pornhub.com. Some videos were produced for financial gain, which would affect the nature of the dyadic romance. None of the videos they examined had a female same-sex dyad.
Between January and October 2020, Newton and his team settled on and coded 208 videos to use for their research (171 straight and male same-sex) for a total of 25.4 hours of sexually explicit sex-while-driving videos. In order to be included, the material had to have “video participants (who) were driving a moving vehicle (e.g. small car, large car, taxi, truck); and whilst the vehicle was moving, the clothed or unclothed driver was engaging in some form of sexual activity.”
That may sound titillating; however, the findings are far from erotic and occasionally predictable.
For example, sampled drivers were predominantly male, the focus of sexual attention and received the sexual acts. Passengers were predominantly female and revealed more nudity. Petrol rather than romance was in the air. Kissing, for instance, occurred a grand total of twice out of the 206 videos. To be fair, it was more popular than “feet sucking,” which occurred once.
Researchers are skeptical about how satisfying the experience may be. “If the vehicle is indeed a space for sexual exploration, then the combined complexity of driving and sexual activity may inhibit verbal interactions and the development of effective sexual communication. It is possible that vehicle occupants may receive a sense of satisfaction if they are motivated by sensation seeking. However, the fact that the driver is typically the focus of sexual attention may come at the expense of the passenger’s own sexual satisfaction.”
The findings will be of use to sex and relationship professionals because it is a risky behaviour, like unprotected sex. Road safety experts can look at the implications to driving and accidents. The fact that drivers were mostly male and that male drivers tend be less risk-averse could have an impact on driving instruction. “There are opportunities to optimize interventions such driver education programs, public health messaging, and sex education to consider the gendered nature and other individual differences to support the prevention of sexual activity while driving,” the authors conclude.
If you are looking for Valentine’s Day inspiration, look elsewhere – like perhaps your memories.
Self-driving cars may one day usher in an automotive sexual revolution, but that amorous spring awakening still seems far away. Of course, it may be that car sex is something that is remembered more fondly than it is experienced. It peaked before bucket seats and is an oft-repeated indulgence one hears bandied about nostalgically by those born before 1990. Today it remains the realm of young lovers with no other place to, as the Derbyshire police put it, “strengthen their relationship.”
Still, a long drive and a short park sounds a lot better than a dozen dusty roses and if you kiss more than twice, you’ll have beaten Pornhub’s record.
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