NEW YORK: Harman recently announced the introduction of Ready Care for automotive customers.
Ready Care is a set of solutions – Cognitive Distraction, Stress-Free Routing, and Personalised Comfort – that can work together or independently to improve safety and reduce driver stress.
Ready Care measures cognitive load for drivers in real-time, responding with tailored interventions to instances of distraction, drowsiness, or anxiety.
Rooted in advanced safety, Ready Care offers OEMs a platform to deliver progressive security, routing, and comfort measures to customers/drivers.
The experience is powered by newly developed machine learning algorithms, which gather and process data from in-vehicle cameras and sensors to monitor a driver’s state and generate customised in-vehicle cabin prompts to trigger a range of behavioural responses—increasing awareness, alleviating stress or inducing/stimulating ease and relief.
According to NHTSA, one of every 10 fatal crashes in the US involves distraction, resulting in more than 3,000 deaths per year.
Harman said it has the only in-market solution capable of detecting if the driver’s eyes and mind are focused on the road while also offering personalised interventions to reduce distractions.
“Safety remains a top concern for consumers when considering a new vehicle purchase – and now, with Ready Care, OEMs can improve vehicle safety in a significant new way,” said Harman International's senior vice president for automotive product management Armin Prommersberger.
“Ready Care is essentially a co-pilot, spotting when distractions could turn into dangerous situations and intervening to avoid them. For the first time, the vehicle can know what the driver is thinking; this is a game changer. We are incredibly proud of and excited by the impact Ready Care will have for drivers, passengers, and everyone on the road.”
Below is a breakdown of the key features of Ready Care:
Eyes and mind on road: Harman claims Ready Care is the only product in the market that measures both driver eye activity and state of mind.
An infra-red global shutter camera with active illumination surveys the driver’s face in low and high light environments to provide real-time data into facial expressions, eye gaze, eyelid openings and more.
The Harman Cognitive Distraction feature – the industry’s only real-time driver visual and cognitive load measurement tool – deciphers when the driver is mentally distracted and can initiate multiple and simultaneous in-cabin vehicle intervention responses. It measures real-time driver cognitive load and separates driving tasks from mental as well as visual and manual distractions, enabling tailored intervention strategies to maximise safety.
Personalised experiences: As all journeys and drivers are unique, Ready Care is said to leverage advanced machine learning technology to provide personalised intervention strategies tailored to the individual and their driving experience. Ready Care delivers closed-loop interventions, allowing OEMs and third parties to integrate any vehicle feature or function – such as HVAC control, media content and volume, or seat sensors – to become part of the intervention solution.
Automotive manufacturers can incorporate the full set of Ready Care solutions into vehicles, or choose specific features to create a more customised solution for their customers and fleets.
