SUN – NOT A PROBLEM FOR LUXURY CAR OWNERS

Technology has always been the driving force behind luxury cars. They are equipped with fancy sensors that make you feel that there is a button somewhere, which will transform your car into an Optimus Prime – the compassionate autobot from the movie Transformers.

Hopefully, one day we will have a car which does that, but in the meantime, we do have a technology that will ensure that your drive in a luxury car is much safer than usual. Researchers from the University of Nevada, Eelke Folmer and Burkay Sucu have developed a technology which will make the steering wheel of a car vibrate when it notices that the driver is drifting away from his lane on being blinded by glare.

This technology can vastly help in reducing the accident toll of motorists, who are at some point blinded by the glare of the sun; especially in the winters, when the sun is low and sunlight is reflected by the snow and ice on the roads.

The researchers have developed a steering wheel which provides tactile feedback in the form of vibrations clocked at a frequency of 275 Hz, a frequency which our skin is most sensitive to. The system relies heavily on sensors of some of the other technologies that have already been implemented in high end luxury cars, which include global positioning system (GPS) and lane keeping assist systems.

If the sensors detect that the driver is blinded by the glare and is drifting away from their lanes, the system kicks into action and vibrates the steering wheel. If the driver is drifting towards the left, the left side of the steering wheel vibrates till the driver doesn’t turn the wheel in the opposite direction to stay in their lane. The system has been in testing for some time now and has performed well. The work is extremely promising according to the research scientist and professor, Paul Newman, who is developing an autonomous car at the University of Oxford.

This technology, if implemented correctly, can take more than two years to start rolling out, pre-installed in luxury cars. Till then, wear your sunglasses and drive safely.