Once again, rather than address the problem, an automaker's using technology to try to mitigate the consequences. Gizmag reports Volvo will show a new technology at the Frankfurt Motor Show that evaluates a driver's alertness and reacts accordingly. Volvo claims that "up to 90 percent" of traffic accidents are caused by a distracted driver; so they've developed a system that uses an array of cameras and sensors to determine the car's movements and calculate whether the driver is at risk of losing control. If it decides there's a problem, it sounds an alarm to let the driver know they need to pay more attention to their driving and less attention to their cell phone, Blackberry, DVD player or whatever they're doing. If the idiot behind the wheel still doesn't react, the car will automatically apply the brakes or take other "preventative safety" actions. It's only a matter of time before a lawsuit claims the car should have taken over and prevented the accident while the driver was busy browsing MySpace on his PDA.
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Well, I keep saying–and people keep responding “Over my dead body…”–that the only answer will be autonomous automobiles. The hen has flown the coop, and there’s no way to stuff her back in again: the universe of drivers (meaning the 98 percent who are solely interested in a car as an appliance and as a reflection of their status, wealth, sociopolitical bent and sexuality) have discovered that they don’t _have_ to do that incredibly boring thing called “driving.” They can be otherwise productive (by their terms) through an enormous and increasing variety of electronic devices.
To say, as so many of us have, “driving standards should be raised” or “distracting devices should be outlawed” is about as productive as demanding laws against obesity, stupidity and pendulous breasts.
Good for Volvo. The life they save my be my own.
Like ABS, Traction Control, and Dynamic Stability, this will further distance the driver from the actual road. Now s/he can shave, eat breakfast, and check his morning email, all while the vehicle constantly corrects his rush hour maddness!
Stephan, you are right on. Society is definitely moving this way. When you think about it there really is no other long-term solution except to take control out of driver’s hands on major roads and reserve driver discretion for the trip to and from the highway. Automated cars would reduce congestion and reduce accident frequency, which would in turn allow us to drive lighter cars and therefore increase fuel efficiency. It would also allow distracted drivers to do exactly what they want to do anyway on their morning commutes. If cars can be made small and efficient enough this could effectively turn the highways into a mass transit system; that sounds pretty good from a social utility perspective.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Volvo is definitely on the right track, but they just need to go the extra mile. Applying the brakes is a start, but they need to automatically pull the car to the side of the road and deploy the steering column-mounted shotgun. problem solved.
As soon as GPS systems could not only tell you what road you were on but what LANE you were in, and as soon as Mercedes developed accident prediction technology, and as soon as Nissan developed lane departure technology… it wasn’t hard to see where it would be going.
Honestly, the only real way to protect drivers from themselves is to stop building cars. I believe that even with autonomous automobiles, someone will manage to find a way to have an accident. That’s assuming a steering wheel and pedals are still present, but I think that the general public would want them there in case the automated system ever fails. So someone would figure out how to hack the system to bits and enable full manual control where they wanted to. I bet the kids could turn this into a game of “how many cars can I run off the road without crashing into anything.” Ah, there’s nothing like human nature.
I’ve been complaining about Volvo for quite a while now. Ever since they started their ad campaign touting their “our cars are smarter than you” features. Feel like rummaging around under your front passenger seat while driving? Don’t worry, you don’t need to look out the windshield, our cars let you know when you should stop, and start to apply the brakes for you. Exiting the freeway, and haven’t properly adjusted your mirrors, or done something as pedestrian as turn your head to double-check your blind spot? Our cars will let you know that you’re about to commit vehicular manslaughter.
Volvo: Protecting drivers from themselves.
Samir’s right. The hardware is already on the shelf–GPS, sensors, telematics, by-wire stuff, stability platforms, etc. All we need is some algorithms to tie it all together.
Scott, you’re doing exactly what I said earlier is senseless: demanding that drivers be moderately skilled and attentive, which is like demanding that people be moderately attractive and thin.
Good for Volvo. The life they save my be my own.
Right. Even if you don’t own a Volvo, you gain protection from these systems.
The headline of this article should read “Volvo Attempts To Protect Other People From Idiot Drivers.”
I can’t wait to see how this plays out in real life. This would last about a week before someone goes to the dealership complaining that the car starts pinging at her really loudly while she’s trying to talk on the cell phone, and it’s distracting her from her conversation. Poor Volvo service people. I wonder how many people won’t be able to make the connection between driving while distracted and the car sounding the alarm.
In about 20 years I’m not going to be able to buy a new car, there will just be too much between me and the driving experience. Hopefully there will be some timeless designs made in that period so I won’t had to drive a dated looking car.
Something like that actually happened with the previous generation of electronics-crazed Merecedeses. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it was something like the sunroof having a zoomy feature where if you were driving and pressed the button just once, it would seek the partially open position that created the least noise and buffeting, probably using $500 worth of audio and pressure sensors.
What happened? Thousands of Mercedes owners who had no intention of RTFM, since the manual was the size of a Thomas Wolfe novel–or even a Tom Wolfe novel–took their car straight to the dealer because the sunroof wouldn’t close.
It’s only a matter of time before a lawsuit claims the car should have taken over and prevented the accident while the driver was busy browsing MySpace on his PDA.
My first thought was, “It’s only a matter of time before a lawsuit claims that the car took over when it shouldn’t have and caused an accident.”
NICKNICK – A-M-E-N!!!
That’s a feature that should be standard.
Well, this device also protects other peoples, it suits Volvo motto, if you want a car that you drive, and not a car that drives you, just go and get a 70’s car … or any big 2.5’s car, same thing. Volvo also makes cars for people who don’t like driving. that’s one of their main strenghs
It really saddens me to see that it has come to this. I realize that it is no small task to suddenly hold all the nation’s drivers to a higher standard, but can’t we at least try? I don’t like having a computer do things for me, especially when I’m in a 3200 lb. piece of steel/aluminum traveling at 55 miles per hour. Devices like these are symptomatic of what I feel is a dumbing down of our culture.
For the past 2 weeks I haven’t been able to take a trip without using my horn to rebuke some inattentive driver, many of whom probably didn’t even realize I was honking at them.
How in god’s name are you going to “suddenly hold all the nation’s drivers to a higher standard”? I hope that by using that wording you’re admitting that it’s impossible to do so–just as impossible as it is (for a wide variety of reasons) to take all semi-blind 90-year-olds off the road, to stop licensing crazed 16-year-olds, to link driver licensing to intelligence testing, to jail manslaughter-committing drunk drivers for the rest of their natural lives and to create a more positive driving environment for “the rest of us” in all the other logical but impossible ways that one can come up with.
We need to deal with reality, not wouldn’t-it-be-nice. And reality is that as the ability to actively control an automobile declines throughout the populace while the distractions that make car control all the more important increase, we need to find another way to control cars.
I’m a pilot, and though I’m not quite old enough to have flown open-cockpit airliners (though I have plenty of Stearman time), I can tell you that when airliners first had enclosed cockpits, pilots railed against the “improvement,” saying they could no longer feel the wind on their cheeks and judge whether they were slipping or skidding, couldn’t deal with the fact that they were suddenly insulated from so many of the tactile cues they’d used to fly proficiently.
Imagine what they’d have said if somebody told them that in not much more than half a century, airline pilots would become little more than systems monitors.
In the vein of the movie “Crazy People” where they gave Volvo the tagline “Boxy but Safe” may I suggest a new corporate motto for Volvo…
“F**k Darwin!”