Nissan Is Working On A Smart Watch To Prevent Car Crashes And Monitor Your Brainwaves
Using technology developed for race car drivers and developed to monitor the car's functionality and the driver's health and vital signs, Nissan hopes to appeal to a wider demographic and revolutionize car technology.
Although Nissan has been quiet about specifics, the watch and car will communicate in such a way to give the wearer constant information on useful statistics like fuel consumption, average speed and vehicle function.
Some of this technology has been used before in smartphone apps, but it's easy to see the appeal of having the information at hand, so to speak. Picture, for example, a trip to the local megastore. After an hour or so of shopping, you return to the giant parking lot oblivious to where you had parked. No big deal: Your GPS-equipped car can communicate with your watch and get you on your way in no time.
Still not impressed? Because your watch and car are in constant communication, your car can update you via your watch whenever it needs an oil change or its tires rotated. Bad at remembering your service times? It will remind you. Forgot to refill your windshield wiper fluid? It's got your back.
Nissan, however, has upped the ante. Not content for the watch to simply give feedback about the car, it's including biometric information as well. It's not just monitoring the car -- it's monitoring you!
Heart rate, brainwave activity and skin temperature: Nissan plans to monitor them all.
And while the immediate use of these things is on the rack track, allowing you to see just how much adrenaline you worked up doing your best Michael Schumacher impression, the future of these technologies is in safety.
Get into a car crash? The car will monitor your vital signs, check for brain damage and alert paramedics if needed. Or are you starting to drift off at the wheel? Falling skin temperature, diminished brain activity and a slower heart rate will alert the car that you're getting drowsy and the car, in turn, will wake you up and inform you that it's time to get off the road.
While most of these car-safety technologies are still in their infancy, they do represent the best of what will be available. In the meantime, the integrated social media functionality will allow you to share track times, brag about high speeds and marvel at just how fast your heart beats when you're pushing the car to its red line.
And, to top it all off, the watch itself is sleek and sexy, something you wouldn't blush to be caught wearing outside your car.
If this is the future of driving technology, we're excited.
