Volvo shows off flagging journalist detector

AT THE END of a long day spent touring Telematics Valley in Gothenburg, Sweden Volvo unleashed its fiendish device on the The INQ's rapidly tiring hack. It's a system designed to detect any sign of drowsiness in truck drivers.

The system was fitted to Volvo's experimental Safety Truck and - given Volvo's ownership of Mack Trucks - could well turn up in a US truck near you any day. A camera fitted inside the truck's cab scans the driver's retina and monitors head movement..

By counting the number of blinks per minute as well as the distance between eye lids, this system can automatically detect signs of fatigue in the truck driver. When the driver - or an exhausted hack - starts to nod off, a warning message appears on the driver's console, the seat vibrates and small white strobe lights flash away. The designers told The INQ that a spooky verbal warning - such as a child's voice saying "Wake up, Daddy" was a further option.

As The INQ pondered what possible connexion this system had with telematics, an engineer kindly explained that the system was also able to detect lapses in concentration. So if the driver stared straight ahead for too long, it would trigger an alarm. The Safety Truck was also fitted with external cameras and radar detectors.

Hence if a driver spends too long staring at a screen to read a received SMS (text) message, it would trigger alarms too. The system will eventually be able to detect if the truck is approaching another vehicle too fast or wandering across the road rather than staying in lane.

Why go to all this trouble? You've heard of Zero Tolerance? Well, Sweden is aiming at Zero Per Cent road fatalities. It is seriously looking at ways of reducing vehicle accidents so that no-one dies. And there's business logic behind it. Currently the EU spends 2 per cent of its GDP on medical bills and other costs associated with traffic accidents. µ