The articles that inspired this post can be found here:
When people
talk about the future of cars and technology, I hear a lot about the
self-driving car. We’ve all heard about
the ways in which it can improve our lives, and we’ve all heard about some of
the problems inherent in its design that will need to be solved before the
self-driving car sees widespread commercial use. But I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about another technology being
developed for drivers – a new driving error detection and prevention system. The idea is being worked on by researchers at
Cornell and Stanford, and relies on cars being heavily outfitted with sensors
and cameras. These sensors and cameras will
be located both inside and outside of the car; the ones on the inside will monitor
the driver, while those on the outside will monitor nearby people, vehicles
(namely, other cars), and objects. The
main new idea presented here is what the sensors and cameras monitoring the
driver will actually do: they will
pay attention to any movements made by the driver while he or she is in his or
her seat. Subtle head and body movements
can indicate that a driver is about to turn or change lanes in the next few
seconds. As the sensors on the inside, monitoring
the driver, will be in constant communication with those on the outside, which
watch for nearby traffic, the system should be able to warn drivers if they are
about to do something that will cause an accident, such as merging into a lane
when there is another car approaching from the driver’s blind spot.
It’s still
in the early stages of development, but this system has many benefits to
it. A system that can warn drivers that
they’re making a mistake can certainly curb accidents quite a bit, potentially making
the roads much safer. The potential this
technology has isn’t too difficult to see; what’ll really matter, though, is
execution and effectiveness. If there is
any error at all (which there must be; see Murphy’s Law), and the system doesn’t
always detect the driver’s subtle movements, it might not always be able to
tell when the driver is about to merge or make a turn right into another
car. Granted, the external sensors
should (hopefully) still be able to do their job, and still warn when the
driver is too close to anther object outside of the car; but even once the
technology is fully developed, a lot of revisions will inevitably have to be
made, until the system works close enough to perfection to be considered
reliable.
I can see some things that people
might be uneasy with, however. Namely,
the notion of one’s car being filled to the brim with cameras and sensors. Some people might view this as an invasion of
privacy, especially if footage of the driver’s face is saved. They might not have a whole lot to hide while
behind the wheel (or then again, maybe they do), but I can certainly see people
complaining about it either way.
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