Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for a distracted driving detection system, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on December 3rd, 2020, published on June 9th, 2022, and assigned serial number 0180722.
The Ford Authority Take
U.S. traffic deaths have increased sharply in recent years, most recently surging to their highest rate since 2005 in 2021. Meanwhile, automotive-related teen deaths are also increasing in America at an alarming rate, and there are some parallels between these two trends. Chiefly among them is the fact that distracted driving is to blame for a large percentage of both accidents and deaths these days, even are new vehicles contain an increasingly large number of active driver assist features. Thus, this new Ford patent aims to help reverse these alarming trends.
Back in April, Ford filed a patent for a wrong way travel detection system designed to address another way American drivers are dying at high rates, and now, this new patent aims to help prevent accidents caused by distracted driving by using a driver monitoring camera, much the same way that the automaker’s BlueCruise feature ensures that a driver’s eyes are on the road at all times. However, this system takes that a few steps further by also identifying when a device – such as a smartphone – might be emitting light on the face of the driver.
If the system detects that the driver is operating the vehicle while distracted, it would then be able to intervene in a number of ways, whether that be alerting the driver or even taking over control of the vehicle. Some may not like this sort of interference from technology, but a recent study found that most are in favor of improved safety tech over self-driving vehicles, so perhaps this particular feature could help save lives without taking over full control of the driving experience.
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Comments
And yet I see ford vehicles driving around at night with no tail lights or headlights on (just the daytime running lights)
Pathetic that Ford can’t put in the electronics to automatically turn on lights after dark. Driver doesn’t even know since all instrument panels are illuminated LCD displays. Driver assumes wrong that lights are on. This has been going on for years.
Shame on poor ford design and engineeeing
.. care about distracted driving, yet put a 58″ LED billboard across my dash .. ????