The future of car safety is here
New, groundbreaking features can alert you to danger before you even know it's there. But added safety comes at added cost.
Fatigue
Possible solution: Driver alertness monitoring
What it does: Watches steering habits for signs of fatigue. If your driving seems erratic, the feature alerts you, with an alarm and a light, that you should take a break.
Availability: Very limited. Currently only on Volvo and Mercedes-Benz cars.
Estimated cost: Not available.
Worth it? While such a system could prevent an accident by waking a drowsy driver, the risk is that the motorist may just keep going until the system is set off again, relying on the feature to be a kind of alarm clock. So ultimately, the feature's usefulness depends upon the driver's response - the ideal one being to pull over for coffee or a catnap. In any case, on both the Volvo and the Mercedes, this technology is offered in a package that includes other valuable systems.
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