Preventing Car Crashes By Scaring The Driver

What’s the Latest Development?

A safety system for cars currently being developed by engineers at the Fukuoka Institute of Technology and UD Motors, both in Japan, will provide speeding drivers with specific feedback regarding what could happen to them if they don’t slow down. It works by using the different types of sensors already found in the typical modern car to determine its kinetic energy, and keeps track of its distance from other cars. An app also records past driver behavior and uses that data to calculate the chances of collision.

What’s the Big Idea?

Current warning systems only show the distance between the driver and the car in front of them. The engineering team believes this isn’t enough, and that the technology they’re calling a “safe driving promotion system” will encourage awareness by awakening drivers to the real dangers of speeding. The warning demonstrates the scale of the possible damage and “could vary from something like a potential whiplash injury due to a rear-end shunt to a fatal, car-crushing collision with fire.”

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Read it at New Scientist