This is exciting - Magna Mirror to Debut in 202427 Apr 2023 20:51
Magna’s new rearview mirror cleverly integrates a driver-monitoring system
It will debut in Europe early next year and in the US in late 2024.
Distracted driving continues to be a problem in the US. One solution to the problem might look something like a new rearview mirror made by the automotive supplier Magna. At first glance, it looks like any other auto-dimming rearview mirror, but it cleverly incorporates a driver-monitoring system, or DMS. It solves a common problem with dash-mounted DMSes, and it's self-contained, so it's mounted in the same way a regular rearview mirror attaches to a car.
Magna gave a demo of the DMS on Wednesday as the company was visiting Washington, DC, for National Distracted Driving Month. That's an awareness thing, not a call to engage in more of it, although newly released crash statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show a national trend headed in the wrong direction. More than 3,500 people were killed by distracted driving in 2021, a 12 percent increase over the year before.
Distracted driving encompasses many things—eating, shaving, and applying makeup all count. But technology shoulders a large share of the blame. Between smartphones and infotainment systems, drivers are overloaded with information, and the consequences can be as gory as a Max Headroom episode.
If technology is part of the problem, and since asking people to put down their phones isn't working, technology might have to be part of the solution, particularly if partially automated driving systems like Tesla's Autopilot legally require human oversight.
The good news is that there's already a pretty good solution—infrared cameras with gaze-tracking software have already been shown to work effectively with systems like General Motors' Super Cruise or Ford's BlueCruise. DMSes might even be a legal requirement before long—in 2021, several US Senators proposed exactly such legislation.
Read more on link:
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/04/this-rearview-mirror-will-look-back-at-you-to-monitor-distracted-driving/
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