Coming next – a breathalyser that immobilises the vehicle if it detects alcohol fumes on the driver’s breath – Toyota Motor Corp has announced safety devices that will automatically stop a car if its driver dozes off and dim headlights to avoid dazzling oncoming drivers: the company, Japan’s largest automaker, said it had come up with five devices for a prototype advanced safety vehicle to be built in 1994, and if the tests pan out, Toyota will build the safety features into future volume cars; two of the devices use a camera to spot other vehicles and curves in the road, and in one, a computer can decide to dip headlights for an oncoming car or change their direction so the driver can see around a bend; in the other, an alarm goes off when a car is too close to the vehicle ahead and the brakes are activated if the driver does not respond; a system for drivers that get drowsy at the wheel uses a wristband that detects falls in heart rate and a computer that spots reduced steering movements; if the driver ignores two warnings, the brakes are applied and the engine is shut down; cars about to brake sharply will also issue warnings to other drivers and signals will say Go ahead or Watch out for pedestrians – and if all this fails, and an accident occurs, a drive recorder like an aircraft flight recorder stores data on how the car was running at the time.
