Car drivers sometimes zone out, fall asleep, or get distracted. This leads to crashes. It would be a safety benefit if the car could sense when the person at the wheel is getting a bit out of touch with the road and help restore attentiveness.
On the sensory part of the problem, I recently came upon the idea of pressure, motion and temperature sensors in the steering wheel. The waning of the pilot’s attention may correlate with a slackened or repositioned grip on the wheel. Sure, everyone holds the wheel differently, but with a little calibration, one might be able to extract information about whether a truck driver has slumped over the wheel in her sleep, or whether dad lets go of the helm for a little too long when seeking to ease diplomatic tensions in the back seat.
As for the “restoring attentiveness” half, I haven’t thought of a pleasant universal solution. The sci-fi-esque stand-by is an announcer’s voice calmly reminding the pilot of the fact that, “a prolonged period of non-active vehicle control may lead to imminent horrendous death-making.” Alarm bells or tones are also possible, but there’s the risk of startling the driver so much that he yanks the wheel in a swerve-inducing fashion.
Perhaps some seat-readjustment to encourage proper posture or a little bit of vibration will be enough. Not too much massage-chair-style vibration, though, or people might just fall back asleep.
