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Your Car Will Soon Sense If You're Tired Or Not Paying Attention
cartechboy writes "Distracted driving is a large issue, and it's getting worse as we become more entangled with our technology. To help combat this growing problem Volvo is showing off new technology that allows the car to sense when a driver is tired or not paying attention. The system bathes the driver in infrared light that can pick up the driver's position and eye movements. If the driver becomes inattentive or begins to drift off to sleep, it will alert you. Besides the safety aspect of this system, it will also be able to recognize the person sitting behind the wheel, allowing the car to tailor itself to that person's stored preferences. Further, it will be able to adjust the vehicle's exterior lighting in the direction the driver is looking based on the detected eye movement. Volvo's quick to note the system can't photograph the driver. People, the future is coming, and your vehicle is going to be watching you."
Even rear view cameras are still incredibly pricey add ons for most cars. I doubt much of this will be forced on us ( though with the current administration "knowing best" for how I should spend my money, who know)
When it goes bad, it will disable the vehicle, you won't be able to fix it yourself, and it will cost $1500 at the dealer. What's not to love!
You will be watching your car !
When this technology reaches the UK, authorities will mandate that the car transmit a signal to the local police so the proper action can be taken. It's the next logical step in the UK's transformation to a dystopian police state.
Remember kids, Ford owns Volvo (and Jaguar, and some others). So, when you hear "don't worry it won't photograph you", just keep that in mind.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
start ticketing people for being perceived as tired? They don't work hard so they know it will disproportionately affect the poor and minorities so they're going to hammer on this issue hard.
What I want: flying car.
What I get: car that makes sure I don't ever go flying.
Ah, the irony.
When it goes bad, it will disable the vehicle, be impossible to fix yourself, and cost $1500 at the dealer. More complexity just waiting to fail. Meh!
The system bathes the driver in infrared light
Anyone else feels like this is going to be a strain on our eyes?
Get ready kids... Car are about to become extremely annoying.
I'll bet it works as well as automatic headlights and automatic windshield wipers. Hell, even gas tank level sensors still suck. Engineers may design something that works, but by the time it makes it into a production vehicle it's been hacked up and cheapened and built out of flimsy plastic components to the point of being useless.
So Volvo is installing this tech in old Datsuns?
Wake me up when my vehicles can drive themselves.
Remember kids, Ford owns Volvo (and Jaguar, and some others)
That was true about a decade ago. Ford sold Volvo to a Chinese company is 2010 and sold Jaguar to an Indian company in 2008.
So, when you hear "don't worry it won't photograph you", just keep that in mind.
Keep what in mind, then? That they used to own Volvo and Jaguar? I'm not sure how that is relevant.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
They're not going to collect it
They won't be sending out signals to the police
They won't be sending out data to your insurance companies
They won't be collecting data for accident coverage
They won't be storing the data and combining it in other databases (ohh you just went to the gym? You just came back from your mistress's place and were tired?)
They won't be selling it to your health insurance provider (xx was driving tired for extended periods of time, must have some disease, drop coverage immediately)
Sorry, there's too many reasons why not to get it and very little reason to get it.
You got your Jesus on the dashboard
But the Devil's under my hood
You're takin' it down legal, I'm pullin' it up to no good
God is your copilot, I let Satan ride shotgun
You pay a toll to get to Heaven
But on the road to hell there's none
Get up you're asleep at the wheel
Get up you're asleep at the wheel
Get up you're asleep at the wheel
Get up you're asleep at the wheel
Get up you're asleep at the wheel
Get up you're asleep at the wheel
Get up you're asleep at the wheel
Get up you're asleep at the wheel
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Considering that my 1998 Volvo V70 wagon (versatile) should last me another 20 years, and I'll be 73 then, this will come in handy when I'm ready to buy again. And if that dies, I still have my 2001 S60 to putz around in.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Wives and girlfriends been making use of this technology for millennia.
Huh? There is nothing new about this, quite a few manufacturers have this technology in place already.
Also soon, cars will be licensed for up to two drivers...additional drivers only $9.99 extra per month.
If this means the car can tell when you're trying to smoke a cigarette, text, and yell at your kid in the backseat while in motion (I'm not even going to claim "while driving" since that's often third or fourth on the list of priorities), then for all of our sakes, it's a good idea. I can only hope the car waits until the next time you stop at a traffic light, shuts itself off, and won't restart until you write "I'm sorry I'm such an asshole" 50 times with your finger on the entertainment screen.
“If the driver becomes inattentive or begins to drift off to sleep, it will alert you.”
Sorry, I forgot there are ads on the Web; I use Lynx.
Being that I'm not a completely narcissistic imbecile, paying attention while driving is not an issue I have; hell, sometimes it feels like I'm the only one on the road who actually understands that the task of operating 2 tons of steel and rubber at high speeds should be the driver's primary focus. Not to say that I haven't fucked up, but I at least bothered to learn from my mistakes. Plus, I'm not so stupid/selfish/what-have-you that I would ignore fatigue and risk the lives of everyone around me by not pulling over to rest when necessary.
That said - is there some way I can point this system at all the other cars on the road? I would find it far more useful to know which other drivers are not paying attention/about to fall asleep/whatever, than to have a Big Brother system to tell me shit about myself I should already know.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
If so, then SOLD!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for no longer linking to greencarreports.com in every single item you post.
That has to be one of the worst, fallacious "news" sites I've ever seen.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
This isn't new...
My Mercedes has something like this, although not as advanced. It tracks variations in steering--when you're alert you constantly make small steering adjustments, while you make fewer, larger adjustments when tired.
Using this information, along with the time of day and how long you've been driving, it will flash a light and make an annoying sound if it determines you're fatigued.
This was actually kind of annoying on a recent road trip (actually on the return trip, late at night). My co-pilot and I would switch seats and see who could go the longest without triggering the warning.
And when I'm horny will it drive to a Motel 6 and try to fuck me ?
Ha ha ;-D
Why does everyone think that everything can be solved with technology? Oh, right, it's easier to sell than telling everyone they mostly suck at something and that they need to get better at it than, "here's a magic $product that will fix all your problems."
The problem is not technology, the problem is not our gadgets,; the problem is our collective attitude about driving and (lack of) training. Requirements to obtain (and retain) a driver's license in some countries would be shocking to most people in North America. Our standards are pathetic and woefully inadequate. Oh, you can follow some basic instructions that a chimp could do for 15 minutes? Here, now you can drive anything outside of a big rig, motorcycle or bus (unless it's an RV, because apparently, having fewer passengers magically turns it into an agile sports sedan... or something), including hauling your big-ass 5th wheel.
That shit doesn't fly in places where driving is taken seriously. Just Google "driving license in [European country]" and wait for your jaw to drop.
If we actually trained people to have vehicular and situational awareness, they would realize that it's a bad idea to be dicking around with their gizmos while operating a multi-ton projectile around hundreds of other multi-ton projectiles, pedestrians, cyclists and municipal structures... and we wouldn't be trying to develop bullshit tech like this or legislating laws ripe for abuse.
That kind of training takes years of practice, not 15 minutes in a mostly controlled situation. But you can't put that in a box and slap on a price sticker.
I always feel like Michael Jackson's watching meeeee.....
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
My vehicle is a bicycle.
I comment occasionally so that I can mod others -1 overrated or -1 offtopic.
... though I'm not sure what for. But... is it really a good idea for my car to shift lighting to where I'm looking. Example: I glance at the car in the oncoming lane, should my car be shining lights in the other driver's eyes? Headlights are focused slightly to the right side (where we drive on the right-hand side) to avoid shining bright headlights into an oncoming driver's eyes. How many accidents might occur because this "smart" car has temporarily blinded another driver?
From TFS and TFA:
The system bathes the driver in infrared light ...
Yet in both TFA photos, the light is drawn in blue.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
It's called an air-bag.
Account -> Discussions -> Disable Sigs
Now if they could just invent a car that detects if the driver is a woman...
I project a coming high demand for pre WW2 cars soon. That is ones built well, indestructible, and with antique license plates [that are cheap].
MY car will not have this feature. Not until hell freezes over and there is no way to own and drive a car without it. A lot, or even maybe all, new cars may have it, but NOT MY car.
Anyone who spends a lot of time on the road knows Volvo drivers
are among the very worst with respect to inattentive driving.
Instead of addressing the root causes, Volvo plans to install a band-aid.
It won't help -- if anything it will make the typically inattentive Volvo
driver even worse because the dolt in the Volvo will assume that the
car is paying attention so he doesn't need to do so.
I'm assuming there will be workarounds, right? Jailbraking your car? Buying a car with the feature to lower insurance rates, then disabling the feature?
Mine won't. And neither will my next car.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
(remember the $5 manufacturing cost they saved on each Pinto?)
The Pinto was 40 years ago. You conveniently overlooked the money they spent correcting that problem, and the fact that the Pinto has been out of production for a long time. That error didn't last the full run of the Pinto, for that matter.
But no, let's go ahead and line up to bash the American company. Need I remind you what the Japanese cars were like in the 1970s? Toyotas were barely able to reach freeway speed. Hondas were too small for a large segment of Americans (ie, people more than 6' tall) to drive comfortably. Both had rust problems galore. But yet they improved. Now people speak fondly of their Japanese cars. In the 1970s nobody would have believed that Toyota and Honda could some day make competitive luxury cars, yet now we have Lexus and Acura.
And if we look to South Korea, the turn around is even more dramatic (at least with regards to how quickly it happened). Hyundai from the 80s and 90s were utter garbage. They probably never should have been allowed on American freeways but we let them on anyways. They weren't reliable, comfortable, or safe. Yet now Hyundai and Kia are very competent little cars.
But yet we keep bashing Ford for what happened 40 years ago. If we did that to the Japanese and Korean cars they would have gone bankrupt years ago.
In case you haven't noticed, Ford Fusion has beat Toyota Camry in initial quality, best midsize, and car of the year more than once and from multiple reviewers. But yet obviously it is more important to remind people about what Ford did when Nixon was president.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Vaseline.
linquendum tondere
Car senses driver texting.
disengages seat-belt lock, quick slam on the brakes and release, bouncing their face off the steering wheel.
Dash shows message "Put down the fucking phone and drive, asshole."
This seems like an overly complicated system for a fairly simple task. Wouldn't it be easier to have a system that measures and tracks inputs and responses over a period of time? This comes across as less reliable tech for the sake of tech.
Attention assist went off in my car for the first time ever last Saturday night. And it was right, I had zoned out at and needed sleep badly!
Watching me that is. I am simply delightful.
already available in volkswagen for more than a year.
That would actually make perfect sense, insurance companies tend to give benefits to people exhibiting responsible behavior.
People exhibiting responsible behaviour have no need of a system to watch them and enforce rules. They would not drive when they felt very tired because it would be dangerous to do so. The only reason for the insurance companies to want this is because they are not sure that you are a responsible person.
The problem is with a system like this is that it has to never give a false positive. Even if one time in a million it gives a false positive there will be thousands of people every year who will suddenly be unable to use their car for no good reason. It seems unlikely that the system is that accurate unless its threshold is set so high it triggers on the drivers snoring.
OK... but what can you do about it if you not allowed to stop and sleep? A problem in the Netherlands where a €120 fine is common, but also plenty of other countries around the world. Pay for a hotel for a few hours? Only possible in some parts of the world
Because I will not be buying a 2016 Audi. or a 2020 Buick, etc....
Honestly until the car makers start making quality instead of crap, I wont be buying anything newer than 2007. Electronics made with consumer grade components in a car is bullshit. Exploded caps in BCM modules are unacceptable unless they are willing to give me a lifetime free replacement. bad soldering in a ECM is also unaceptable.
Right now the entire car industry is ran by complete morons that care about profits and not quality and safety. Until that changes, I am sticking with cars I can repair myself.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Golf Mk7.
Little coffee cup in the display "Sleepyness detected. Recommend taking a Break" (sorry for my bad english, that car is speaking german *g*)
It reacts to how often the windows are opened, how long I have been driving, and with the DistanceAdaptiveCruiseControl I think it is even watching if I zig-zag a bit in my own lane.
(DistanceAdaptiveCruiseControl was pretty expensive in a Golf but I love that feature).
I heard in the Audi Vehicles they even put cameras that what the drivers eyes if they blink or close. (In the expensive package).
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say, will be irrelevant. Your cars data analysis can and will be used against you in a court of law,,,
My 2014 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk with the Advanced Technology Group brings adaptive cruise control, forward-collision warning and mitigation, and blind-spot monitoring with cross-path detection with "lane assist" that will keep you in your lane and sound a warning and vibrate the wheel.
Armaments, 2-9-21 And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade' N
Hasn't the S-Class had this for a couple of years already now? I seem to recall seeing something about it on Top-Gear.
May not have been an S-Class, it just seems to ring a bell since that series is usually first to get bleeding-edge stuff like this that finds it's way in to regular cars a few years later.
Founder & COO, Hayai India (hayai.in) / USA (hayaibroadband.com)
When I was back there in college before the computer era, one of the undergrad engineering projects was to develop this kind of thing, and every year some fine solutions were developed, even without the use of digital electronics. Same for interlock systems that would test your reflexes/coordination for a couple of seconds and not allow the car to run if you were drunk, or having a stroke or something. But there was no commercial potential, because secretly, nobody wants to buy a car that will actually prevent him or her from driving when he is drunk or falling asleep or whatever, if he wants to drive.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
"Start the car back up, KIT!"
"No, Michael"
(Kicks the car)"You piece of #@&%^$#"
"You're grounded, Michael"
Does this possible future scenario bother any of you in the slightest? And what about other scenarios, if, say, your fridge decides you should go on a diet? :=)