It’s no top-secret fact that vehicles are designed to appeal to consumers’ self-images. A transportation research report from ScienceDirect writes “Cars may evoke impressions of flair, speed and power, but such impressions can conflict both with the aesthetic language of suburban architecture and the needs of pedestrians.”
The relevance to IoT here is apparent: Vehicle aesthetics, however tasteful, shouldn’t impede the pledge of safety to drivers, passengers, and pedestrians alike. And, as we well know, the sphere of IoT covers a lot of ground (roadways, in this case) with cutting-edge tech to ensure safety is front and center, rather than pushed to the rearview.
Enter HARMAN, a subsidiary of Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics Co., Ltd. and a well-known name in automotive technology. To hone its consumer experiences further, HARMAN recently announced new features for HARMAN Ready Care, which combines state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and in-vehicle sensors to detect a driver’s personal state and propose customized in-cabin responses to mitigate safety risks and increase their well-being.
HARMAN Ready Care’s closed-loop interior sensing measures drivers’ eye activities and cognitive loads to determine levels of attention and focus on the road ahead of them. Ready Care is also backed by neuroscience and AI to classify driver behavior and levels of potential distraction and even anxiety, stress, and drowsiness. (Plus vital signs like heart rate and breathing rate, to boot.) Ready Care even supports Child Presence Detection (CPD) for families looking for extra peace of mind.
Per HARMAN’s mission, its products are conceptualized by getting inside the minds of drivers and passengers to deliver memorable experiences that uphold the industry’s thorough automotive standards. HARMAN recognizes that no two drivers (and no two journeys they take) are the same, so proper sensing capabilities and dynamic routing options are offered to keep trips as stress-free as possible.
Armin Prommersberger, HARMAN International’s Senior Vice President of Product Management, is one hundred percent behind what Ready Care brings to market.
“Ready Care is an industry-first product that is driving real impact for driver safety and well-being, and is a key part of HARMAN’s quest to deliver consumer experiences at an automotive grade,” Prommersberger said. “With its ability to deliver personalized driver interventions via a closed-loop approach, from detections via analysis to tailored interventions like adjusting the temperature, audio settings and vehicle lighting, Ready Care offers unique solutions and protective intelligence that constantly prioritizes the driver’s well-being.”
Ready Care makes those aforementioned interventions possible via its Ready Care SDK with supporting APIs, allowing OEMs and other third-party suppliers to integrate any vehicle functions. For example, per a recent press release from HARMAN, third-party developer Gentherm Incorporated leveraged the HARMAN Open SDK to provide its ClimateSense solution.
As a scalable, flexible safety product with consumer-first enhancements, HARMAN Ready Care may prove to be a life-saving addition for drivers and whomever they’re traveling with in short order.