The auto-giant Toyota is reportedly working on a heart rate monitor system for cars in order to help contribute making future cars much safer. Manufacturers all around the world are working on different technologies which can help save lives during an emergency and this new idea by Toyota will detect the heart rate of the driver through the in-built sensors on the steering wheel. Due to which the car will be able to report possible cardiac attack and hence call on emergency helpline for rescue.
Now this might not seem something new as multiple fitness devices and mobile phones come equipped with heart sensors but those are not accurate that’s why this technology hasn’t made to cars yet. Inaccuracy can lead to a panic state for the driver so this technology should be mature enough to respond only in the right situation. A report by American Heart Associates claims that each year 17.3 million people die due to cardiovascular diseases. Where as another report made by European Heart Journal says that cardiovascular diseases account for 8% of the accidents around the globe. Which is a considerable number of avoidable accident if cars come equipped with heart monitoring technologies but as most car these day are not even semi-autonomous due to the high cost factor. A simple monitoring system would not be enough especially when a car is in the middle of the road and autonomous technology is required to help the car stop and park itself into an appropriate place.
Similar technology is used by car companies such as Tesla which helped save a man’s life in 2016 by detecting no input from the driver but that was after when the driver had lost his senses, so early discovery can prove to be more beneficial for people driving the cars which cannot be driven autonomously like Tesla. Although Toyota’s technology has a long way to go but when the automated driving technology will flourish this technology can prove useful for the drivers suffering from heart diseases. Once this becomes a standard we hope to see this in future Toyota Cars in Pakistan.
