HARMAN Ready Care: Detects driver behaviours and assists

HARMAN a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. focused on connected technologies and solutions for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, announces the introduction of HARMAN Ready Care. it’s the latest solution in its expanding portfolio of products designed and built to deliver consumer-focused experiences at an automotive grade. Ready Care is a set of solutions – Cognitive Distraction, Stress-Free Routing, and Personalised Comfort – that can work together or independently to improve safety and reduce driver stress.

Ready Care measures cognitive load for drivers in real-time, responding with tailored interventions to instances of distraction, drowsiness, or anxiety. Rooted in advanced safety, Ready Care offers OEMs a platform to deliver progressive security, routing, and comfort measures to customers/drivers. The experience is powered by newly developed machine learning algorithms, which gather and process data from in-vehicle cameras and sensors to monitor a driver’s state and generate customised in-vehicle cabin prompts to trigger a range of behavioural responses—increasing awareness, alleviating stress or inducing/stimulating ease and relief.

According to NHTSA, one of every ten fatal crashes in the U.S. involves distraction, resulting in more than 3,000 deaths per year. As the only in-market solution capable of detecting if the driver’s eyes and mind are focused on the road while also offering personalised interventions to reduce distractions, Ready Care is making advanced, meaningful safety technology accessible to drivers today.

“Safety remains a top concern for consumers when considering a new vehicle purchase – and     now, with Ready Care, OEMs can improve vehicle safety in a significant new way,” said Armin Prommersberger, Senior Vice President, Automotive Product Management at HARMAN International. “Ready Care is essentially a co-pilot, spotting when distractions could turn into dangerous situations and intervening to avoid them. For the first time, the vehicle can know what the driver is thinking; this is a game changer. We are incredibly proud of and excited by the impact Ready Care will have for drivers, passengers, and everyone on the road.”

 Key features of HARMAN Ready Care include:

• Eyes and Mind on Road: Ready Care is the only product in the market that measures both driver eye activity and state of mind. An infra-red global shutter camera with active illumination surveys the driver’s face in low and high light environments to provide real-time data into facial expressions, eye gaze, eyelid openings and more. The HARMAN Cognitive Distraction feature – the industry’s only real-time driver visual and cognitive load measurement tool – deciphers when the driver is mentally distracted and can initiate multiple and simultaneous in-cabin vehicle intervention responses. It measures real-time driver cognitive load and separates driving tasks from mental as well as visual and manual distractions, enabling tailored intervention strategies to maximise safety.
  
• Stress-free Routing: Compatible with multiple navigation engines, Ready Care provides an alternate route selection to lower the inevitable driver stress levels while on the road. Through detecting real-time stress factors like traffic jams or weather and adapting accordingly, this solution helps mitigate the driver’s state of stress.
  
• Personalised Experiences: As all journeys and drivers are unique, Ready Care leverages advanced machine learning technology to provide personalised intervention strategies tailored to the individual and their driving experience. Ready Care delivers closed-loop interventions via an SDK, allowing OEMs and third parties to integrate any vehicle feature or function – such as HVAC control, media content and volume, or seat sensors – to become part of the intervention solution. An example could be the innovative thermal management technologies offered by Gentherm, the global market leader of innovative thermal management and pneumatic comfort technologies for the automotive industry.

Ready Care equips OEMs with advanced but meaningful technology to improve driver safety and wellbeing. Automotive manufacturers also have the opportunity to incorporate the full set of Ready Care solutions into vehicles, or choose specific features to create a more customised solution right for their customers and fleets.

For decades, HARMAN has been uniquely set at the intersection of automotive and consumer technology innovation, resulting in meaningful, industry-leading solutions. Through its key consumer and technology brands, deep industry expertise, and robust technology stack, HARMAN is equipped to deliver on the promise of consumer experiences through automotive-grade solutions today.

For more information on HARMAN’s Ready Care solution, visit car.harman.com.

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