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posted by martyb on Wednesday August 02 2017, @11:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the cool! dept.

Until self-driving cars get a lot better, the only AI controlling them will be us. Since we're imperfect, sleepy beings, however, Panasonic is using artificial intelligence in a different way: To detect when we're drowsy and pull us back from dreamland. There's a surprising amount of tech to that, including an infrared sensor, environment sensor, facial capture camera and "thermal sensation" system that activates the car's AC or alarms if all else fails.

Panasonic came up with five different levels of potential drowsiness: not drowsy at all, slightly drowsy, drowsy, very drowsy and seriously drowsy (their terms). The system aims to figure out exactly where you are on that scale and take the appropriate measures.

[...] Unlike other systems, it works silently in the background so that drivers don't even notice they're being monitored. Rather, you'll (hopefully) just feel generally more awake during the trip, unless you try to pull off a 20-hour all-night trip. In that case, it'll rightfully tell you to pull the hell over so you don't endanger yourself and others. Panasonic plans to make their system available to automakers by October, and it might come to your favorite car model sometime after that

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/01/panasonic-drowsy-driver-ai-infrared/


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  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by ledow on Wednesday August 02 2017, @12:24PM (4 children)

    by ledow (5567) on Wednesday August 02 2017, @12:24PM (#547904) Homepage

    In this world of overbearing health and safety laws, how can it be acceptable to deliberately try to detect drowsy drivers and then ATTEMPT TO ALLOW THEM TO CONTINUE DRIVING?

    Wake them up with a fecking 110dB siren, and then insist that they can't accelerate again until they've puled over and come to a complete stop for at least 10 minutes.

    Even THAT is risking them just doing that and jumping straight back into the road, but come on! At least then when you have the accident, we'll all know whose fault it was and that you ignored all the warnings, won't we?

    "Oh, you're piloting a 1 ton block of steel at 70mph and you've nodded off. Here, have some gentle sunshine and a little cup of coffee, while we try to STOP YOU KILLING EVERY OTHER FECKER ON THE ROAD".

    Even better? Driving drowsy and overriding the messages and continuing regardless? No problem, we've alerted the police to that fact. Most modern cars already do that for airbag deployments, it'll soon be compulsory on new cars in the EU, so one more life-saving feature added to the system won't be hard.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @12:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @12:56PM (#547921)

    So you want more overbearing health and safety laws? No thanks.

  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday August 02 2017, @04:36PM (1 child)

    by mhajicek (51) on Wednesday August 02 2017, @04:36PM (#547988)

    So you startle them with a siren, causing them to swerve and hit the brakes in the middle of 80mph freeway traffic, then you won't let them get back up to a safe speed. I can tell you really thought that one through.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @09:37PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @09:37PM (#548126)

      Taser in the seat.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @08:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @08:08PM (#548092)

    Maybe, just maybe if it was still safe enough to pull onto a highway rest stop and take a thirty min nap without needing to be carrying a weapon then people would do that.

    Heck, I just drove across country and saw more closed and left to rot rest stops then open ones.

    Well they can just stop and get a room for the night, right? Well that hundred dollars was the gas money you were using to go to the funeral, and you cant stop the whole night your work has decided to not give you adequate time off and you have to be at work the next day.

    Put the rest stops every 50 miles, hire a rent a cop to walk around and keep an eye on things, and you will have fewer drowsy drivers on the road.