A CAR’S judgement on the driver’s levels of alertness could be more reliable than the driver’s own perception of it.
So say Eike Schmidt of car manufacturer Daimler in Böblingen, Germany, and his team, after tests on volunteers during a 4-hour drive along the autobahn. To make the drive as boring as possible, the drivers were asked not to chat or listen to the radio.
Every 20 minutes, the team asked the volunteers how attentive they were feeling. They also tested the volunteers’ reaction times by asking them to push a button attached to their thumbs every time they…
