Hyundai Mobis’ smart cabin: Healthcare center on the move

Many traffic accidents are caused by drowsy driving, fatigue or the driver’s abnormal health conditions.

Automakers around the world have strived to employ in-vehicle healthcare technology to make driving safer. And in the era of autonomous driving, monitoring the driver’s condition is a real bonus, turning the vehicle into a healthcare center on the move.

Hyundai Mobis Co. is the latest company to utilize one of the most advanced biometric technologies: reading and analyzing the driver’s vital signs, including brain waves, to warn them of internal dangers while driving.

Hyundai Mobis, the auto parts-making unit of Hyundai Motor Group, said on Thursday it has developed the Smart Cabin Controller, an integrated controller in the cockpit that monitors a driver’s health condition for safer driving.

The system is equipped with four sensors: a three-dimensional camera to capture the driver’s body movements; an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor mounted on the steering wheel; an earset sensor that measures brain waves flowing around the ear; and a sensor that checks the temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels inside the car.

COMPREHENSIVE IN-VEHICLE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

It’s the world’s first such in-vehicle healthcare system that comprehensively checks various vital signs to determine the driver’s status, according to Hyundai Mobis.

The company said the four sensors detect vital signs and automatically send them to the controller, which analyzes the data and sends the driver warnings via the navigation system or the heads-up display if it detects dangerous conditions.

With further technological advancement, the Smart Cabin will be upgraded to recommend switching to the autonomous driving mode if the ECG sensor detects a high level of stress in the driver. In an emergency, the system will eventually guide the car to a nearby hospital if the driver falls unconscious or has a heart attack, according to the company.

Hyundai Mobis, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co., has been actively developing in-vehicle healthcare technology to keep ahead of its rivals in the future mobility sector.

Last year, Hyundai Mobis developed M.Brain, a driver monitoring device with brainwave-sensing technology.

The wearable earset, which analyzes brain signals, including those indicating drowsiness, has been used for public bus drivers in Gyeonggi Province on a pilot basis, proving its desired effect as traffic accidents have been reduced, the company said.

Write to Il-Gue Kim at Black0419@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.