These days, the airwaves are filled with commercials for cars that do the driving—or at least some of it—for you. Could this be, at least in part, an answer to the perpetual problem of what to do about the waning skills of senior drivers?
Some models of Lincoln and Lexus, for instance, will parallel park themselves. Mercedes Benz offers a system that can sense when a driver is getting drowsy by monitoring steering angles. When the driver nods off, the car emits an audible warning and activates a dashboard icon in the shape of an espresso cup that says "time for a break." And Volkswagen is looking into a "temporary auto pilot" system that will use monitors, cameras and scanners to monitor and manage the position of a vehicle.
The benefits for older drivers are obvious. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on average 500 older drivers are injured every day in accidents, while "the risks of being injured or killed in a crash increase as you age."
But will seniors, who are often reluctant to give up control in any aspect of their lives, adopt and adapt to these new technologies? A study of 29 older drivers by Charles Musselwhite and Hebba Haddad, researchers at the University of the West of England, suggests that they just might.
The researchers discovered that these elderly drivers were aware that their eyesight and reaction times were worse than those of younger drivers. They also reported problems with distractions along the road and glare.
The drivers said that they compensated for these problems by driving more carefully, but also showed an interest in technology that would make them more "self-aware of their driving limitations," according to the report. The researchers suggested that senior drivers could be most helped by devices or systems that help them regulate their speed, and give them feedback on how well they are driving.