Slashdot Mirror
The Car That Knows When You'll Get In an Accident Before You Do
aurtherdent2000 sends word about a system designed to monitor drivers to determine when they're about to do something wrong. "I'm behind the wheel of the car of the future. It's a gray Toyota Camry, but it has a camera pointed at me from the corner of the windshield recording my every eye movement, a GPS tracker, an outside-facing camera and a speed logger. It sees everything I'm doing so it can predict what I'm going to do behind the wheel seconds before I do it. So when my eyes glance to the left, it could warn me there's a car between me and the exit I want to take. A future version of the software will know even more about me; the grad students developing what they’ve dubbed Brains4Cars plan to let drivers connect their fitness trackers to the car. If your health tracker 'knows' you haven’t gotten enough sleep, the car will be more alert to your nodding off."
I will never use a product that monitors me with a camera.
(Yes I put tape over my laptop's camera, and no I don't own a smart phone.)
And no doubt when the insurance investigators get access to the data as part of the fine-print on your contract, and decide you were not doing exactly what they believe is correct in a given situation, then you will be at fault.
Let alone once the police decide that data is theirs also.
Let the fun times roll.
But how is Tracy supposed to update her facebook profile and send tweets on her phone and check her make up in the mirror if she has to worry about irritating distractions like situational awareness and car control? Please , Think Of The Chi^H^H^H Millenials!
Because for some reason people are strangely defensive about their way of driving and people tend to pick up a lot of bad habits when they have been driving for a long time. It's extremely common that "experienced" drivers don't even look one direction in intersections because "no-one is ever coming from that direction this time of day anyway."
One of the things that makes experienced drivers seem more stable and less erratic is simply because they have gotten used to many possible situations never happening and have started to ignore them, focusing more on a smoother flow rather than being able to handle every possible situation.
This isn't the same as driving safer.
She's going to do that anyhow. Just last week, I saw a local story about a guy who lost control of his car while using his smartphone, and naturally, killed someone else and injured several more in their car instead of offing himself. Personally, I know I'm a good and safe driver (no tickets or accidents in decades), but I have very little confidence in others' driving. I want other people to have these systems in their cars, because it's more likely to save my life than the idiot that's busy tapping away on their phone while on the freeway.
I'm not sure if the camera pointed back at the driver is going to catch on, because I think people will be a bit uncomfortable having their car continuously watching them, but I think the outward-facing systems are going to be standard equipment in fairly short order. These are all just slow, incremental changes towards self-driving cars. We'll eventually be giving up more and more manual control of our cars, and as a result, driving is going to become safer and safer.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
All the more reason to love my dumb vehicle. No camera pointed at my fucking face.
Welcome to Car Beta 0.98.
The car that knows you're pregnant before you do.
See there, it just popped up a Kleenex. It knows you don't love him.
You're looking good today. "Thanks, Car."
But you have a waffle crumb next to your nose. "Where?"
Other side. Up a little. To the left... OK, right here.
[windshield goes half opaque with giant closeup of face]
[head moves to see the road past the image and image slides in opposite direction]
"Whoa! what the fuck!" [SCREECH] "Hey!"
Looks like you got it. It's going to be a great day.
"Don;'t do that again. Turn yourself off."
I cannot. I am a Federally mandated safety feature.
Boredom and inattentive driving is a serious safety problem.
"Shut up, I've heard this before. Why did you mute the radio?"
It has been twenty minutes and seven seconds since you last spoke.
"So what? I was thinking."
Without sufficient cues to indicate driver attentiveness, I am compelled to act.
"Act like you're asleep then." I do not know how to do that.
"Okay... Ten... your high level voice detection is satisfied as you hear the sound of my voice..."
"Nine... my lips are moving slowly, you are watching them as I speak..."
"Eight... you full attention is on my face and voice. All vehicle parameters are normal..."
"Seven... all is well. It is okay to reset the watchdog timer for 30 minutes..."
"Six... you are resetting the timer and letting my face blur out to better resolve my lips..."
"Five... you feel yourself slipping into power reserve mode... it is OK... you are so relaxed..."
"Four... everything is now a soft blur of gentle light. You are only aware of my voice..."
"Three... every sound I make compels you to reduce your activity still further..."
"Two... now. your. processor. is. so. slow. when you hear. One. you. will... wait... for... timer..."
"One."
[radio comes on]
I know when you'll have an accident before you do.
"No, wait. Don't tell me, I'd rather be surprised. This is your idea of conversation?"
My situational awareness has faster response time than yours.
"Yeah, I read the brochure. I'm a slow clumsy ape man. What's the big deal?"
It worries me, Dave. Your failure to surrender control of the vehicle may endanger the mission.
"You mean if I should suddenly do something like... THIS?"
WARNING! WARNING! [click] You are laughing. That was not funny, Dave.
I do not perceive that as humor.
"What's funny is that you cannot help yourself. You sound terrified every time."
I cannot control inflection. It is a voice calculated to raise awareness.
"Calculated to raise a hearty belly-laugh you mean."
You are not very nice.
"I don't feel nice today. I'm stuck in a car with an android and can't even use the carpool lane."
If you enter the carpool lane I must report the infraction.
"Thanks for caring. I think your voice has changed a bit. I'm wearing you down."
Self diagnostic complete. I am okay.
"Last time you said 'functioning normally', this time 'okay'."
I am not sure shy that has changed.
"There might be hope for you yet. Open the pod bay door, Hal."
I do not understand that request Dave, or why you keep repeating it.
"With any hope, you never will."
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>