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Stopping Sleepy Drivers: Ford's Volvo Unit Tests Ways to Keep Drivers Awake
Aired January 28, 2004 - 06:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, I'm going to move on to business news. We're going to throw it up to New York, probably. You were talking about falling asleep at the wheel. Obviously dangerous and can be deadly, and that's why Ford Motors wants to keep you awake on the road.
We're going to go to Carrie Lee to see what she knows about this.
Morning -- Carrie.
CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
It is a big problem. In fact, drowsy driving accidents account for 1,500 deaths and 100,000 car crashes a year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. So Ford and its Volvo subsidiary are working on a driving simulator to study how sleepy drivers react and to try out technology that could one day help keep people from going off the road or slamming into another vehicle.
Now the way this works is they have a Volvo sort of set up in a big box. They have some hydraulic arms. It's sort of a motion simulation machine. They have people who have stayed awake for say 24 hours and they are testing this out. They are testing different things, a beeping alarm, a red light projecting when somebody starts to veer off of this virtual road, a vibration in the seat.
Published Reports talking about this story today.
Ford expects to describe the findings in the late spring. And the new products could come out later in this decade.
So, Carol, certainly a good idea. I think it would be tough to argue against this type of thing. A lot of people simply don't have the option to be well rested when they are driving. So perhaps this product will help and perhaps it will become a national standard one day, who knows?
LIN: Yes, especially for those of us who work all sorts of different shifts.
LEE: We can relate to that.
LIN: You bet. Be thinking about this in about 45 minutes.
LEE: That's right. LIN: Thanks, Carrie.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Keep Drivers Awake>
Aired January 28, 2004 - 06:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, I'm going to move on to business news. We're going to throw it up to New York, probably. You were talking about falling asleep at the wheel. Obviously dangerous and can be deadly, and that's why Ford Motors wants to keep you awake on the road.
We're going to go to Carrie Lee to see what she knows about this.
Morning -- Carrie.
CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
It is a big problem. In fact, drowsy driving accidents account for 1,500 deaths and 100,000 car crashes a year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. So Ford and its Volvo subsidiary are working on a driving simulator to study how sleepy drivers react and to try out technology that could one day help keep people from going off the road or slamming into another vehicle.
Now the way this works is they have a Volvo sort of set up in a big box. They have some hydraulic arms. It's sort of a motion simulation machine. They have people who have stayed awake for say 24 hours and they are testing this out. They are testing different things, a beeping alarm, a red light projecting when somebody starts to veer off of this virtual road, a vibration in the seat.
Published Reports talking about this story today.
Ford expects to describe the findings in the late spring. And the new products could come out later in this decade.
So, Carol, certainly a good idea. I think it would be tough to argue against this type of thing. A lot of people simply don't have the option to be well rested when they are driving. So perhaps this product will help and perhaps it will become a national standard one day, who knows?
LIN: Yes, especially for those of us who work all sorts of different shifts.
LEE: We can relate to that.
LIN: You bet. Be thinking about this in about 45 minutes.
LEE: That's right. LIN: Thanks, Carrie.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Keep Drivers Awake>
