Smartphone apps have made many aspects of our lives easier, and there is a very good chance that your life could be made better right now if you only knew which app to download in order to do it. And that might even extend to driving, but it's sometimes difficult to figure out where to start when researching apps. There are an estimated 1.6 million apps available for Android->ke5266, and Apple->ke2851 is only just behind with 1.5 million. So it would helpful to have someone else, someone with a lot of time on their hands, to take a look and find some really good driving apps, maybe even some of the ones you didn't know you needed.

The folks at SMF, an online auto parts retailer in Ireland, has compiled a handy list of their top 10 app picks for car owners. Some of these are for navigation, always an important thing for drivers, and it never hurts to have a backup for when the app that came with your phone goes all Apple Maps on you. Another one sure to get a lot of use is TuneIn Radio, because good driving music is nearly as crucial as knowing where you're going.

Continue reading for the full story.

Why it matters

The rest of the apps on the list do different sorts of things, some of them are diagnostic tools, there's one to help you out if you get in a wreck, and one to help you minimize driver distractions. A couple of them sound interesting, but also possibly too good to be true. One of these is Find My Car, which as the name suggests, will find your car using GPS. It probably works great in sprawling parking lots, but a multi-level parking garage might well be a different story. Then there's iOnRoad, an app made to offer some of the early warning systems currently being developed for higher end cars by using the phone's camera to watch for potential safety hazards. It's not impossible to believe that either of these work brilliantly, but they would be seriously advanced if the claims are all true. In any case, the list is absolutely worth checking out.