It’s not a matter of if, but when. When are we going to see technologies that actively keep a driver’s eyes on the road? Soon, says Continental AG, one of the world’s leading suppliers of automotive technologies.
You may know Continental from its tire brand, but the company also makes electronics for nearly everything out there on four wheels. Its latest example is what it calls its “Halo” technology that, when equipped in the Cadillac XTS shown above, uses facial recognition technology to determine the driver’s eyes and chin, detecting where they are focused. If it senses the driver’s eyes veering from the road, it will send a beam of light shooting across the dashboard, directing him or her to focus on the road again.
The ambient light beam can change colors from white to yellow, yellow to orange, or orange to “We’re screwed!” red. The team that designed the Halo at Continental chose to install it into a 2013 Cadillac XTS just to show how easy it was to retrofit it into an existing car for which it wasn’t designed.
Already, different suppliers have a host of technologies they sell automakers from lane-departure warning systems to radar-based cruise control systems to technologies that will even brake for you if they sense an imminent collision. This is just the latest in a long like of what’s likely to come next.
“Someone needs to find a way to put it all in one package, especially when different safety technologies come from different suppliers,” said analyst Dave Sullivan of AutoPacific in Ann Arbor, in an interview with the Detroit Free Press. “Whoever comes up with a solution, it will be a silver bullet.”
With more technologies entering the car as we integrate our lives on the go, there are inevitably more distractions. The Halo might just be the answer for making sure our eyes don’t veer too much from the road when using a center-mounted touchscreen. Are you ready for it?
See the Halo in action in the link below.
Source: Detroit Free Press
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