At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, car manufacturers and suppliers are showing off their new vehicles and emerging technologies to help transform the entire driving experience. This includes previews of new emerging mobility technologies. One company leading in this field is Harman International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. And they introduced a new a unique solution that can detect a driver’s cognitive load. It’s called Ready Care and it enables OEMs to provide customers with more peace of mind on the road.

What is Harman Ready Care?

Harman Ready Care on a Buick dashboard.Harman International

Harman Ready Care is a set of solutions — Cognitive Distraction, Stress-Free Routing, and Personalized Comfort — that can work together or independently to improve safety and reduce driver stress. It can deliver heightened levels of safety and wellbeing through the integration of several key technologies. In addition to employing cameras that can detect driver drowsiness, Ready Care measures real-time driver cognitive load to identify when potential distractions arise, and then offers tailored intervention strategies to maximize safety. 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. Ready Care can then generate customized in-vehicle cabin prompts to trigger a range of behavioral responses — increasing awareness, alleviating stress, or stimulating relief.

“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, in a sense, 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.”

Ready Care’s key features include Eyes and Mind on Road, Stress-free Routing and Personalized Experiences.

What are Eyes and Mind on Road?

Ready Care 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 — a 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 other mental activities as well as visual and manual distractions to enable tailored intervention strategies that maximize safety.

What is Stress-free Routing?

Compatible with multiple navigation engines, Ready Care provides an alternate route selection to lower elevated 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 or anxiety.

Harman Ready Care on display for Buick center consoleHarman International

What are Personalized Experiences?

As all journeys and drivers are unique, Ready Care leverages advanced machine learning technology to provide personalized 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 — into the Ready Care solution. An example could be the advanced 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 can incorporate the full set of Ready Care solutions into vehicles or choose specific features to create a more customized solution right for their customers and fleets.

For decades, HARMAN has been uniquely positioned 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.

To learn more about Harman’s Ready Care solution, you can visit their site.