GM’s New Smart Sensors Aim to Keep Your Eyes on the Road
Your state may have hands-free or no texting while driving laws, but I think we can all admit to seeing at least one person break those rules just about… yup, every single day. And while insurance companies, car makers — even celebrities, have released thousands of videos showing us the dangers of driving while tired or texting, sometimes it just doesn’t get the message across. That’s why we’re seriously applauding General Motors, whose latest initiative is to prevent distracted driving by putting sensors into cars that monitor where a driver’s head and eyes are pointed whenever they’re behind the wheel.
These monitoring sensors were designed by Australian tech company Seeing Machines and manufactured by Takata, a Japanese safety equipment company. They watch the position of the head as well as the direction of the driver’s pupils in order to gauge things like focus and eye blinks. By installing these sensors in cars, drivers are warned if their attention is on something other than the road or the mirrors for too long, ideally preventing an accident of any kind. Because driver distractions are one of the biggest causes of fatal accidents, we think GM is onto something huge here!
At this point, word on the street is that GM plans to install half a million of these devices in their new cars over the next three to five years. And even though technology may have prompted the increase in distracted driving in the first place, we’re definitely rootin’ for an even higher tech fix to help solve the problem.
Do you think these smart sensors will help prevent drivers from becoming distracted? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
