You might not like the idea of your car looking into your health, having info like heart rate and stress levels and all that, but Ford thinks this might be a way where it can increase the safety of the driver. Ford is looking into wearables – such as a fitness tracker or a smartwatch – to provide it with information on whether the driver might be sleepy or stressed.
If you don’t get the drift yet, sleepy or stressed might be precursors to a car accident, and you want to avoid that. Increased heart rate might show signs of stress, and that might not be good for people driving. Also, smartwatches can now track sleep data – for instance, how much sleep you actually got last night – and could tell if a driver might possibly doze off on a 3-hour drive.
“As more consumers embrace smart watches, glasses and fitness bands,” Gary Strumolo, global manager for vehicle design and infotronics, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering., “we hope to develop future applications that work with those devices to enhance in-car functionality and driver awareness.”
You may not like the idea of your car knowing how you feel at the moment, but if it makes for safer driving, then we’re all for it. Watch out for this, your next Ford automobile might just ask you to calm down and relax a bit before you drive.
SOURCE: Ford
