Toyota Is Keeping an Eye on You
Pistonheads insist that Toyotas are a snooze to drive. Toyota agrees. Stockhouse reports that ToMoCo has developed a system that measures driver's eye apertures to see if they're awake and paying attention. The system's camera and image-processing system monitor the positions of the driver's upper and lower eyelids. OK, here's the tricky bit. Toyota says it's integrated the eye thingamabob with its Pre-Crash safety Nanny. Apparently, without the eye system, Pre-Crash lets you know a crash is ABOUT to happen. With Big Brother scanning your eyes, Pre-Crash lets you know an accident COULD happen. Anyway, it's just another damn thing electronic gizmo that can go wrong, that your dealer will have to replace rather than repair. Toyota says they will offer the system on selected domestic (Japan) models "in the near future."
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I guess one day parallel parking will be a lost art, along with shifting your own gears. I see this as another gadget that takes away common sensibilities. If you're too tired to drive, don't drive. It's that simple. I should know, I spend a lot of time on the road, and usually at the end of the day, between climbing towers, carrying heavy pieces of equipment, and listening to the same dumb songs all day long, it leaves me worn out. So what do I do? I find a rest area, pull in, and get 30 minutes of shuteye. It's enough to stop me from crashing and burning. At best, this system is useless, at worst, it'll be used against you to prove that you were distracted from the road when all you were doing was changing the radio station.
"Useless?" I'd pay extra for it. If you've ever dozed off after leaving a big lunch meeting complete with boring speeches, then awakened in the wrong lane to see a fully-loaded logging truck rushing straight at you, as I have, you'd understand the life-saving value of such a device.
If they are putting these in Toyotas, they'll probably break before the warranty ends from overuse.