not just a sedan, it’s a Subaru.

Driver fatigue causes thousands of deaths every single year - so what if there was a

device that could alert you whenever you start to fall asleep?

Hey guys, Tara here for Dnews - and chances are, most of the people out there watching

this own a car. And if you drive relatively often, then there’s also a chance you’ve

driven in unsafe conditions. And by unsafe, I don’t mean drunk or bad weather conditions

- I’m talking about driving while tired.

About 20% of all car accidents involve a drowsy driver, which leads to almost 7,000 fatalities

every year. Truck drivers, young male drivers, and shift workers are especially vulnerable

to drowsy driving. It lowers your reaction time, and impairs your concentration and alertness.

But even scarier, is the fact that there aren’t any laws - at least here in America - against

driving while drowsy. Which is why many auto makers and companies are now trying to develop

technology to prevent those kinds of accidents before they happen.

Researchers at the Biomechanics Institute in Spain, recently created a device that can

monitor cardiac and respiratory rhythms in a driver, through sensors that are embedded

in the seat-belt and seat cover.

Heart rate and breathing rate are the two single most important indicators of fatigue,

so by monitoring those vitals, this system can effectively alert you if you’re starting

to fall asleep at the wheel. When a driver’s respiratory rate falls below a certain level,

a warning mechanism goes off that alerts the driver, avoiding a potential collision. The

system is also covered in a smart material to cancel out the effects of road vibration,

or any driver movements.

According to its creators, they now have a fully-functional prototype that can be implemented

into any car. Currently, it’s being tested on closed tracks only, but those tests have

yielded positive results, and its creators are hopeful that they’ll soon be able to

test the system in real-world traffic scenarios.

Just imagine how many lives we could save with technology like this. As someone who

once lost a good friend myself to drowsy driving, I have to say - I do wish something like this

had come along sooner, but on the whole, I could not be more excited about this.

While we’re on the topic of driving, we wanna extend a quick thank you to Subaru,

for making this episode possible. And especially the all-new 2015 Subaru Legacy. Every sedan

has its benefits, but only one combines them all. It’s not just a sedan. It’s a Subaru.

And hey - be sure to let us know in the comments below, if you ever get sleepy while driving

- and what your best remedy is to combat driver fatigue. That’s all for me, but as always

- thank you guys for watching!