Aware Car Monitors You

What if your car not only told you when it needed an oil change, but also when you needed to get something to eat? Or when you could use a cup of coffee? Or when you became just too darn old to be at the wheel?

This is the idea behind MIT AgeLab's Aware Car. The $1.5 million car acts as a vehicular Big Brother, monitoring not only oil levels but driver health and behavior. Sensors in the dashboard monitor respiration, heart rate, blood pressure and even blood sugar levels. In other words, it won't be just your spouse telling you to get in shape.

The Department of Transportation is subsidizing the research because as the Boomer population ages, the number of elderly drivers will more than double from 35 to 87 million in the next 40 years, according to the Census Bureau. The technology behind the Aware Car (which likely won't make it into commercial vehicles for another 25 years) can help identify elderly drivers who need to hang up their keys.

Whether the car would tattle on old drivers who've become dangers directly to the DMV or simply warn them that they are no longer capable is a political question that need not be addressed for another 25 years or so. Keep in mind, though, that the DOT thinks this tech could eventually save billions of dollars in human and capital cost.

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