Takata, one of the industry's largest suppliers, announced today the addition of the Driver Alertness Warning system to the SafeTraK3 advanced electronic vision range of gadgets. Developed for use on commercial trucks, the system will alert the driver if and when they begin to drive erratically within a lane or unintentionally departing from their lane.
"Drowsy or inattentive driving is a very serious issue on our roadways," said Kirk Morris, TK Holdings vice president of business development and product management.
"We believe the use of our SafeTraK products will help to reduce distracted driving in the commercial trucking industry. Soon automakers and consumers will also recognize the exceptional value of these safety systems."
This out of the blue push for the adoption of such systems has been prompted by the release of a study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (the results are based on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash data), who found that drowsy driving is responsible for 16.5 percent of fatal crashes in the United States. That means that some 5,000 people have been killed because of drowsiness.
In the coming year we will probably see an increased number of similar systems developed with the elimination of drowsiness in mind. It the US, this push is being, however, eclipsed by the fight to end or at least limit the effects of distracted driving.
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