Ford wants to wake you up
We didn't think Volvos could actually get much safer, having always been the car of cautious, yet upscale, suburbanites, but that isn't stopping their parent company, Ford, from trying. At the New York Auto Show this week Ford is showing of some new technology designed to curb drowsy-driving that will be included in all Volvos before 2010. Using optical scanning to sense a driver's drooping lids, the car could create a variety of warning methods, including a vibrating steering wheel, the sound of the car driving over rumble strips (that's what those things are called!), and a visual warning projected on the windshield, which sounds pretty unsafe in itself. The "active system" can automatically adjust any steering that it deems to wild, something which could help stop the estimate 4% of car crashes that are fatal (and also end all forms of recklessly fun driving for the rest of us). Other companies are getting in the accident-avoidance business too, like Infiniti who plans to install similar equipment on this fall's 2005 models. While these technologies would
undoubtedly help some drivers avoid accidents, why don't we just try something a little easier like not driving when we're tired or not chatting on our cellphones or just basically paying attention?
