Jaguar Land Rover decided to raise the bar for customer safety by equipping its cars with high tech features.
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The automaker is already working on its alert system which will notify the driver for any upcoming pothole or cyclist ahead. But that technology looks dull in front of the company’s current safety project, which include the usage of NASA technology, “Mind Sense.â€
Mind Sense technology will monitor drivers' brainwaves to keep a check on the suitable level of drivers’ concentration on the road and prevent accidents. The steering wheel of Jaguar cars will be equipped with the sensor while an on-board computer will be working to calculate the real time level of attention paid by the driver. The steering wheel can be programmed to vibrate or the computer can send a warning sound to alert the driver if he feels sleepy during the drive.
Taking driver safety to another level, Jaguar, which is currently owned by Tata Motors Limited, is also putting medical-grade sensors on the driver seat to assess the medical condition of the driver.
Jaguar XJ will reportedly be one of the first to be equipped with such doctor-like seats, dubbed “Wellness seatâ€. These seats will not only make sure of the driver’s ability for a safe journey, but most importantly, the technology can be used for multi-model transportation models such as pilots' seats in airplane or for cargo drivers, who have to drive for several hours on long routes.
The seat can come in great use in the future by detecting a possible heart attack, and informing the autonomous car to take the person to hospital in an emergency.
Jaguar is also working on an acceleration pedal that will vibrate if the driver is overspeeding or about to hit another vehicle. This will indicate the driver to stop hitting full throttle and drive carefully.
As for the in-car infotainment system, the company is coming up with a haptic feedback display screen that will sense that the driver wanted to press midair, which the company calls “predictive infotainment systemâ€. It is very difficult sometimes to surf through favorite songs while driving and this technology will allow drivers an open space for operating their touch screen display without actually touching it.
The car maker is also planning to bring an ultrasonic feedback to trick drivers' brains into thinking that they have actually touched the screen. ■