Mercedes-Benz "Attention Assist" warns sleepy drivers
Here's a story that hits close to home, as it happened to my father many years ago. He fell asleep at the wheel once, had an accident, and fortunately came away with nothing more than a broken nose.
Anyway, Mercedes-Benz is in the final testing of a system that will help drivers avert the above scenario. It's called Attention Assist, and the system records the angle of the steering wheel, speed, acceleration, the use of indicators and pedals, as well as external factors such as a side wind or an uneven road surface...
If changes occur within the established parameters of the individual's driving behavior (with steering behavior having proved a particularly telling indicator according to Mercedes) a warning sounds and an alert symbol appears in the instrument cluster so the driver knows it's time for a break.
Full story here.
- Permalink | Comments (6)
- Posted by: Bob Holland December 13, 2007, 7:36 AM
- Categories: Car Tech, Mercedes-Benz
Aren't there already systems out there that monitor tension levels in the face or eyelids?
there all just starting to show up, I think audi is another company that is working on it.
it will take the lux makers of the world to perfect this before it starts to show up in the econo boxes of the world.
But I think that on a whole this will be a great tech.
I doubt peopel are going to pull over becuse their car tells them to. Most will probably ignore it, or will get a false sense of security from it.
Some welcome technology - it looks like it starts to warn based on early indicators which is great. The key would be for the driver to actually listen to the warnings because after a while even having a set of electrodes connected to the seat won't keep me awake. If the system works and warns the driver, the driver has to consider himself (and others) lucky to have had someone (or thing) warn them and pull over.
They should play "Wake up, Little Suzie" on the stereo. LOL
Speaking of being tired, did Edmunds just change the forum layout again or am I just getting sleepy?