Being a trucker is not an easy thing. It requires driving for hours and covering vast distances with a deadline that needs to be met. It's a demanding job that requires constant attention. And yet, truckers are still humans, and that means they are susceptible to exhaustion.
The real danger with driving while exhausted is when the driver falls asleep at the wheel. Considering that trucks are huge moving objects, even a small swerve because the driver fell asleep for a few seconds can lead to disastrous results.
Now, Ford is introducing a product will not only save truckers’ lives, but will also help make the roads safer.
As a way of celebrating Ford's trucking production in Brazil, the company decided to address some of its biggest problems by introducing a hat that tracks driver's head movements.
Tracking the head movements of a driver is a good way of knowing whether the driver has fallen asleep. Ford's hat will also alert the driver if he or she is in danger of sleeping at the wheel.
Ford is officially calling their high-tech cap Ford SafeCap. The SafeCap is a product in collaboration with GTB, a creative agency based in Sao Paulo.
GTB started the project by collecting massive amounts of data related to head movements while driving. From the data, head movements that indicate fatigue and lack of attention are then isolated. From then on, it's just a matter of fusing the software data and hardware.
For the hardware, Ford's SafeCap is equipped with a gyroscope and sensors. If the driver is mimicking head movements that show signs of exhaustion, the cap will then warn the driver with vibration, lights, and sounds.
Ford's collaboration with GTB may be a brand-building exercise, a technique used by Ford to test the waters if there's actually something bigger than the product alone.
This is not the first time that Ford has tried a brand-building exercise. In fact, they are a company known for marketing projects or products that go beyond the originally proposed concept.
One product, in particular, is Ford's smart crib, which was launched in Spain during the first few months of 2017.
Ford's smart crib is a unique crib that imitates the driving experience of a person. As many parents will testify, driving a crying baby around can put the little one to sleep. When the word got out that Ford invented such kind of crib, the demand skyrocketed. It's the market that actually told Ford that it wants the product. Naturally, Ford launched its one-of-a-kind crib months later.
This time, Ford is attempting to duplicate the same success for SafeCap. According to Oswaldo Ramos, Ford’s head of sales and marketing in Brazil, SafeCap started as a project intended for the local market. However, they are now getting requests from all over the world.
As of the moment, Ford is still perfecting SafeCap. Once the tests are done in Brazil, Ford plans to introduce the product to the rest of the world.
