Keep awake when you are driving! by Ivana Bruderova

How many people are driving their cars tired and drowsy? According National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 25 to 30 percent of car crashes are consequence of driver's inattention, for instance drowsiness. It can happens to everyone, when we are tired after sleepless night or have flu and just want go to the doctor. Now several automakers such as Saab and Volvo are developing their own systems to help drivers keeping awake during driving. System which specialist from Saab are actually working on is called Driver Attention Warning System. It is based on monitoring eye movements of driver by 2 miniature infrared cameras situated on driver's door and center console of the car. When system attends the eyes of driver have been closed for the time that is longer than a time of normal blink chime sounds and question: "Tired?" appears on the instrument panel. After first warning comes second and finally the third: "You are dangerously tired! Stop as soon as it is safe to do it!." Competitive firm Volvo says the system of eye scanning is not the right way because it has great problem for example with those people who are wearing glasses because thicker lenses and frames "makes the system confused". It's system called Driver Alert monitors the distance between car and surrounding road markings to define whether the car is being driven in what the automakers calls a "controlled" fashion. "We looked at eye scanning and due to the problems with accuracy & behaviors and eye shapes being different from person to person we decided to look into other ways," said Dan Johnston, Volvo's spokesperson. It's system should be available since 2008. "Systems that enable cars to monitor their drivers are not new," said Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore. Such systems have been developing since mid-80s and "technology is finally catching up" he said. Manufacturers are just working on last details and testing their systems, so we actually have to wait if the future brings expected results.

by Ivana Bruderova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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