Smartwatch and wearables enthusiasts have been hearing about how wrist wearables can enhance the in-vehicle experience, but one car manufacturer is “buckling down” (pun intended) when it comes to wearables. Ford has opened its own Automotive Wearables Experience Lab in Dearborn, Michigan devoted to testing out smartwatches and vehicles. Specifically, Ford intends to use health data compiled on smartwatches (an Android Wear-powered Asus ZenWatch 2 in the picture above) to grow and develop driver-assisted software within its own vehicles to account for various health circumstances such as fatigue – in the event the driver hasn’t had much sleep and may not have the strongest reflexes.
Ford has also been testing the use of smartwatches to buzz the wearer’s arm and alert him or her to take over the vehicle again in the case of construction on the highway or an accident up the road ahead. Autonomous vehicles could provide a number of benefits, and, when synced up with smartwatches, could help the driver rather than distract and risk life in the process.
We don’t know the implications of what Ford has cooked up in the future, but I think that marrying smartwatches and semi-autonomous vehicles sounds pretty sweet. What do you think?
You can see more about Ford’s new lab via the company’s own press release.
