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/
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @11:43AM (3 children)
Honestly, what is with the desire to constantly shove cameras in front of peoples faces. Bad enough I see them every time I walk outside, every time I am on the bus, in a taxi, in the shop and on the train. My house and my car are the two places where I still have some privacy, and they want to get rid of that too?
This "monitoring" is getting all too damn pervasive. I am an adult, I am more than capable of monitoring myself and deciding for myself when I should do what and how. Fuck your constant childish nannying and attempting to tell me what to do, it is really getting out of hand.
No doubt this system will have some sort of uplink as well (even if not initially, it will be added in future) so you can be survailed even in your own car.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @01:31PM (1 child)
Didn't you read the title? They want to crank up the Anonymous Coward! :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @04:20PM
Yeah, well, I think that one got cranked up to 11...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @12:01AM
Yep, second this statement. I too am tired of all the cameras everywhere, and will not accept them monitoring me in my car (or my house for that matter.)
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Wednesday August 02 2017, @11:52AM (1 child)
The first thing that comes to mind when I hear these things is: who has access to the (camera) data?
The answer will be "only the local system" just until they are proven wrong. Then most will start to tell you that it doesn't matter, there are no (third party) interesting data being captured, until they are proven wrong. Etc...
Secondly, the question is not whether this is a smart and helpful technology. The question is what can and will be done with it, either intentional or unintentional. There I am very pessimistic.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday August 02 2017, @02:10PM
The AI.
Whenever a match is found and the price is right, it will inject a sleeping gas** and drive you first into a deep comatose sleep and next to the closest hospital able to harvest organs from donors, what else?
Ah, sorry, the continuation: the car will be repossessed and very conveniently sold to the next... ummm... charitable body.
---
** the dose will be refreshed at each periodic service.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2, Disagree) by ledow on Wednesday August 02 2017, @12:24PM (4 children)
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.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @12:56PM
So you want more overbearing health and safety laws? No thanks.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday August 02 2017, @04:36PM (1 child)
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
Taser in the seat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @08:08PM
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.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday August 02 2017, @12:34PM
That doesn't sound like AI. That sounds like a state machine based on fuzzy logic (remember when it was all the rage around the late 90's?).
Sounds like someone's Raspberry pi project on hackaday: pi camera -> OpenCV -> state machine -> Air conditioner.
Thats...creepy. We all know what that might mean once the cars get connected to the internet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @03:58PM
"Cranks Up the AC"
For a moment I thought AC stood for Anonymous Coward.
Makes sense, Around ACs Never Relax!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @12:15AM
Since your body naturally gets colder when you sleep, turning on the AC is probably exactly what you don't want to do if a driver is already starting to doze off.
Works silently in the background? So the driver is completely confused and distracted because the fucking AC won't stay turned off in the middle of a winter road trip. How do these systems get approved to be developed?
I wouldn't buy a car with this system. If you think I'm too tried to drive then tell me that, don't play games with me, especially when I'm tried!
As a side bonus the extra IR lights on your face will make you clear to any security camera you drive by.