In the past few years, we’ve become increasingly conscious of the dangers of using our hands for various distracting activities while we’re driving.
The most obvious of these is the use of our smart phones while driving, but reaching for that car stereo can be just as dangerous.
Car manufacturers have made many features accessible from buttons on our steering wheels which is certainly an improvement, but every time you’re reaching for something no matter how close it is to you you’re taking your concentration off the road and that needs to change.
Towards a Touchless Future
With the introduction of technologies such as Siri we’re increasingly approaching a world that can be controlled without the need to touch anything. Two companies that are leading the pack in this regard are BMW and Hyundai.
Their new gesture based control system has real potential to increase safety on the road and to reduce the risk of accidents while driving.
In fact, at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show Hyundai made it clear that it was exploring all kinds of different technologies to improve the safe driving experience of its car owners. These technologies include both voice recognition systems and hand gesture control systems.
3-D Gesture Control
While it’s still in the development stage and just a concept at the moment the introduction of 3-D gesture control by Hyundai will potentially improve safety while driving exponentially.
Instead of reaching for a button or trying to find the right preset on our radios we can simply use predetermined hand gestures to accomplish the same thing.
This would sort of be like learning sign language at first and might cause some difficulties, but once you get the hang of this technology it will not only make your driving experience safer – it will also make your life a lot easier.
Seamless Navigation
One of the best suggested uses for this type of technology is to interact with your car’s navigation system. Instead of having to pull over to reprogram your route in your GPS because the family has decided they want to go for ice cream you can simply use 3-D hand gestures that the system recognizes without ever having to pull over. Not only can this type of technology eliminate distractions it can also save you a lot of time.
How about the Infotainment System
On long trips it’s not unusual to want to reach for the infotainment system because you don’t like the song that’s just come on the radio.
Instead of taking chances with your life and the lives of your passengers Hyundai’s experimental system can allow you to access your infotainment system and change the channel with a simple gesture.
You can also use it to interact with your smart phone’s playlist and play a song from there instead. The potential uses for a 3-D gesture-based system are seemingly endless.
Keeping Your Eyes on the Road
While there is an extensive list of potential uses for 3-D gesture-based systems and voice controls it all comes down to one thing – these systems allow you to keep your eyes on the road.
We’re but a few short years away from the removal of most of the major distractions that we face today while driving and there should be no doubt that this will reduce the amount of accidents we see on the roads today.
Buckle up It’s Going to Be a Fun Ride
The only problem with all these new and exciting voice recognition and gesture-based access systems that manufacturer’s such as Hyundai and BMW are beginning to experiment with is that they’re not here yet.
For car enthusiasts waiting for the first production car to include these types of systems can seem like torture at times, but we can be comforted by the fact that they are most definitely on their way.
You might also enjoy:
5 New-Car Innovations That Will Change the Way You Drive
How Vehicle to Vehicle Communication Will Change Our Lives
If You Are Not Taking Advantage Of Ford’s OpenXC Platform Here Is Why You Should