Tesla is stepping up its monitoring of drivers by watching for yawns, blinks and other signs of drowsiness. This applies even when drivers are not on autopilot mode. The goal is to improve road safety and reduce distractions.
Tesla increases the monitoring of drivers of its vehicles. The firm wants to tackle the identification yawning, blinking, and other signs of drowsiness. Over the years, Tesla has been criticized for not paying enough attention to it, despite the advanced driver assistance features offered in the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving packages.
Tesla redoubles its attention with a mechanism that detects driver fatigue
For a long time, Tesla simply detected the presence of force on the steering wheel, forcing drivers to touch it to signal to the system that their hands were still in contact. Although this method remains the main means of monitoring, the automaker had started using a camera facing the cabin, in 2020. This camera allows Tesla to check if the driver is looking at the road, if he has his eyes open , closed, not using a portable device, etc.
So we’re moving up a gear, as today Green, a Tesla hacker known for discovering new features in the brand’s software, revealed that the automaker now monitors yawns and blinks. This tracking is not limited to the use of Autopilot or Full Self-Driving beta, but also applies when drivers are driving themselves.
The automaker would take into account the quality of the ride, the number of lane-keeping assist warnings and recent corrections made by the driver.
It remains to be seen what Tesla intends to do with this information, when it triggers a certain intervention threshold, etc. Some comments also point out that Tesla should first obtain consent from drivers before collecting this data. A question that we asked ourselves in 2020 already.
