Cars In Canada Will Now Be Built With In-Car Cameras To Detect Intoxicated And Distracted Driving
With the new distracted driving laws that rolled out at the beginning of the year throughout Ontario, police have been cracking down on distracted and impaired drivers throughout the province, and even the nation. Harsher penalties have been implemented in Ontario with hopes to deter people from driving impaired or distracted. To help with these efforts, Volvo has announced that some of their newer models will be built with in-car cameras and sensors that will help to detect intoxicated and distracted driving.
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Volvo announced today in a press release that they wish to help in the efforts of stopping intoxicated and distracted driving throughout the nation. The main reasoning behind this mission is because distracted and impaired driving doesn't go towards Volvo's vision of a future with zero traffic fatalities.
Due to this, Volvo cars are installing in-car cameras and other sensors that will help to monitor the driver while they are on the road. These cameras and sensors could track a variety of signs of distracted and impaired driving.
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These signs can include lack of steering for long periods of time, if the driver's eyes are closed or not focused on the road, and may even be able to detect extreme weaving or slow reaction times.
Once these cameras detect a driver that may be impaired or distracted there are several measures that can be followed, according to Volvo.
If a driver does not respond to warning signals than Volvo could intervene by either alerting the Volvo on Call assistance services, slowing the car down and even bringing the car to a safe stop.
Senior Vice President, Research & Development, Henrik Green spoke out about this Volvo initiative, "When it comes to safety, our aim is to avoid accidents altogether rather than limit the impact when an accident is imminent and unavoidable. In this case, cameras will monitor for behaviour that may lead to serious injury or death."
These new changes to Volvo come to light after Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada stated that four people are killed each day in crashes that involve impaired driving, and more than 69,000 impaired driving incidents were reported by police across Canada in 2017.
You can expect to see these in-car cameras beginning in the early 2020's as they will appear on the SPA2 vehicle platforms.
Source: Newswire
