Page - 67 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 3/2017

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 3 2o17 Agata Stanisz | Tractor unit acoustemology 67 The most interesting ones include Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation devices. Such systems usually have female verbal representations: drivers believe that a woman’s voice is more pleasant to listen to that of a man, and that it gives them a sense of security. Drivers enter into verbal interaction with their GPS systems: they talk to them, ask them questions, lace into them and curse them. The information provided by GPS is also verified on the basis of the  knowledge and experience of drivers, who learn the routes as time goes by. The purpose of the navigation system is to provide its users with data on their geographical location and  facilitate navigating through an unknown territory. It allows drivers to determine geographic coordinates, record their track “to the point” and “on the route”, return to the starting point “on  the same route”, measure the distance, determine the surface and even calculate sunrise and sunset times and the phases of the moon. As a result, mobile workplaces are always precisely localized. Drivers constantly monitor their locations and the movement of their tractor units. The  information provided by GPS tends to be out-of-date. Therefore, other ways of finding, for  example, loa- ding or unloading locations are devised. In the situations where drivers cannot find the right way or a certain address, their family members come to their aid. Drivers call their wives or adult children, so they look up the desired locations on the Internet and  afterwards navigate the tractor units using mobile phones. The loading and unloading locations (industrial zones, villages, often fields, metropolis centers and suburbs) are always situated in  spaces inhabited by people who could potentially help the drivers find the right way. Local populations may sometimes provide drivers with incorrect or misleading information, as  a  result of which the transit acquires a free-floating nature and the drivers get lost. However, situations when people organize guides for the drivers who have got lost are equally frequent, especially in small towns and villages. In practice, either a person familiar with the area occupies the  passenger seat in the cab or there is a car driving in front of the tractor unit that navigates it  right to the point the driver would otherwise not be able to find. Audio file 16: Playing stupid computer games. Oure, Denmark, 2011-08-13. https://app.box.com/embed/preview/x064rzortgky3ec2rpxr?theme=dark Audio file 15: Buzz of voltage Inverter. Spjald, Denmark, 2011-08-18. https://app.box.com/embed/preview/xr1vsxe5na2e2arb77m8?theme=dark