London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Sep 30, 2025

Car camera system could help keep drivers awake at the wheel

From 2022, some cars will be kitted out with a new technology that detects if a driver is distracted or drowsy.

Distraction -be it a smartphone, a cigarette, music or eating -factors in up to 30% of road crashes, while fatigue is involved in up to 20%, according to the European Commission.

This is why, as of 2022, new safety technologies will become mandatory in new European vehicles, including "a warning of driver drowsiness and distraction."

Bosch, the German engineering and technology company, is positioning itself to be one of the main providers of this technology, announcing in December that it has developed an interior monitoring system that detects drowsy and distracted drivers.

The technology, which will be built into new cars from 2022, uses cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) to detect when a driver's eyelids are getting heavy, or when they are distracted from looking at a phone or turning towards another passenger.
The algorithm -trained using recordings of real driving situations -makes a judgment on the driver's fatigue depending on their eyelid position and eye-blink rate.

"Based on all this information, it can recognize if you're getting tired because the frequency of your eyelids opening and closing gets much slower," Annett Fischer, spokesperson for the Bosch interior monitor system, tells CNN Business.

The system can then alert drivers, recommending a break if they are tired, or even reacting by reducing the speed of the vehicle.
The form of the alert -whether it's sound, light, slowing down or even a vibrating steering wheel -will depend on the automaker's wishes, as they will adapt the system according to their brand and their consumers, Fischer explains.


Saving lives

Over a million people die globally each year from road traffic accidents, according to the World Health Organization's 2018 global status report on road safety. Using a telephone while driving -whether hand-held or hands-free -increases the risk of a crash by four times, while texting increases the risk by around 23 times, it estimates.

Fatigue is a particular issue for those who drive professionally, Joshua Harris, director of campaigns at the UK road safety charity Brake, tells CNN Business.

"These drivers are often behind the wheel for long periods of time and can be in charge of heavy vehicles, which can cause huge destruction in the event of a crash.

"Technology has a huge role to play in achieving a world without death or serious injury on the road and we welcome new advances which improve safety, such as drowsiness detection systems," he says.

Bosch is not the first developer in the field. Australia-based company Seeing Machines debuted its driver monitoring technology in the 2018 Cadillac CT6, and the Swedish company Smart Eye Automotive Solutions has developed a system for Geely, one of China's biggest carmakers.

Dudley Curtis, communications manager at the European Transport Safety Council, agrees that in the long term these systems will help prevent collisions.

"But it will take a long time before all vehicles have the technology," he warns. "In the meantime we need to tackle the problem from other angles as well."

For instance, while there are restrictions on driving hours in Europe -a maximum nine hours a day -he recommends stricter enforcement and regulation of these limits.

The danger is that a driver may "over-rely" on these systems. "Drivers still need to take responsibility for being fully alert and concentrating on driving, even with these systems are installed in their vehicles," says Curtis.


Privacy problems

Another concern is privacy, as the camera-based driver monitoring systems collect large amounts of personal data on the driver and passengers.

According to Bosch, data collected by its system would only be evaluated by software in the car itself, and will neither be saved nor passed onto Bosch or third parties.

Fischer adds that if the automaker wanted to store any kind of data from the driver, they would have to receive consent from them first.

Curtis believes that transparency is essential to consumer trust. He encourages automakers to explain clearly how the technology works, how the data is used and how long it is stored for.

"If it can save your life and the lives of others, it should be welcomed," he adds.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
×