Sony/Toyota Developing Car With Emotions

ackthpt writes: "From Yahoo News, a concept car to be unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show, next week, will attempt to read the driver's emotions, stress level and respond. Named "Pod", the car will frown and even cry (does this mean it leaks radiator fluid?) With emphasis on attracting younger drivers and "cute", the car will also take pictures when it determines the atmosphere inside is a happy one, memorize musical taste and TV preferences and offer shopping information. (Just what we need, the Highway Shopping Channel...) Probably better not to take this one out into the street. Maybe with some hacking it could really be a fun car." There's a picture. This is wild.

Cool, but Actually Useful?

[Kaio]

Approach the car with the mini-pod and it lights up, opens the door, swivels the seat for easy entry as well as adjusting the seat's height. Switch off the engine with mini-pod, and the car falls in height and bids the driver farewell.

While that is really spiffy, is there really a need for this car? I'll admit that this sounds like a very cool machine, but I'd be much more interested if the research went into developing solar/battery-powered cars. I'd rather get 120 miles to the gallon than have my car talk to me.

But a point of curiosity: does anyone with the inside scoop on this know when the car "cries"? Does it do it when the engine overheats or something?

New Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

How about a car that has the same quality or better as previous models, that costs less?

Really, who needs *features* and whizbangs in a car. I got better items [warehouse23.com] (large please) to spend my hard-earned money on.

Industry Innovation

[gehrehmee]

Haven't been paying attention to the way major industries play their games lately?

The day you see an energy efficient car on the market is the day you'll see Microsoft release a product that goes out of its way to make it easy to share information with other company's platforms.

Is this another clippy?

[Billly Gates]

When I read the story, I immediately thought of MS-bob and clippy from Office. When you are driving, there is no need for your car to know how you are feeling. If it tries to do something like talk or appear on a display, it will just get in the way. Perhaps it may be even dangerous to drive with it enabled if its too distracting. Like a cell phone is dangerous on the road. Remember that driving at 45mph you go several hundred feet in a matter of seconds. If I was driving that fast I would not want my car to talk to me. Even if I was at a standstill it would not be dangerous but just really annoying. I hate clippy because I want to do my work and in my car I just want to drive.

I can see something usefull like a GPS system and an electronic map integrated together. I have seen one of these cars once and they are cool and usefull. Perhaps this and a integrated cell phones for emergencies but thats it.

Re:When do we get features we NEED?

[Anne_Nonymous]

Better yet... get a bicycle.

Re:Dumb

[dragons_flight]

When and if machines start to have social interactions with humans which are indistinguishable from friendships and relationships (or at least the level of response of cats and dogs), then there is no reason to think that people wouldn't or shouldn't become emotionally invested in them.

I devote time to interacting with my friends and family, and thus we all grow closer as a result. The sharing and understanding makes them important to me. In a world where we interact and learn about certain machines by the same process, it makes perfect sense that humans would form the same attachments.

Humans and machines of today come about through entirely different processes, but that doesn't mean that in the future it would be impossible to "assemble" a biological organism or to "grow" a machine. The lines will blur and we must come to realize that our perceptions will as well. A perfect understanding to the biology, chemistry, and nuerology of you would not detract from your status as a social being. Neither should understanding the principles behind a machine make interacting with it any less interesting, provided it is sufficiently complex.

Important stuff...

[supabeast!]

How about things that are actually important in a car, like:

1- Self driving.
2- Standard Built in GPS for those of us who frequently go to unknown places.
3- Built with modern polymers, not metals and older plastics, so that the car weighs less (Resulting in better fuel efficiency than any hybrid engine can give you.), costs less (Polymers stronger than steel are already nearly equal to steel in price, and will drop in price as use rises and more is produced on a massive scale.), and is safer (Polymers allow for strength in the frame to be better distributed in a crash.).

Just some food for thought...

useful trickle-down

[PapaZit]

These shows aren't meant to show features in their final form. They're more "here's the nifty concept that's inspiring us right now."

So, some -useful- things that might come out of this:

When the car detects anger, it cuts acceleration and top speed, giving the driver fewer chances to drive like an asshole.

The same thing could (and probably should) be done right now when it detects the driver using a cellphone.

Combined with a big mp3 drive, you can just hit the "music" button without taking your eyes off the road to fiddle with the radio to find the right music for your current mood.

You could adjust traction control on 4WD vehicles to the driver's stress level. If they're an inch of snow on the ground, the Chicago driver won't even care, but the Dallas driver is going to have a death-grip on the wheel and'll be on the verge of panic. For the latter, engage the 4WD automatically, cut power so that they're less likely to spin, and put the anti-lock brakes on "paranoid mode."

One of the problems with collision detection systems is that they're really annoying during rush hour, and there actually are situations where driving close to the vehicle in front of you. You could link these systems together so that if the driver seems alert, the system won't go off, or will go off quietly, but if the driver's dealing with fighting kids in the back seat, it sets off the "too close" klaxon at full volume.

Marvin?

[PorcupineMaster]

For all of you that have seen it Marvin the manicly depressed robot from Hitch Hikers guide to the galaxy rings a bell, imagine starting your car up to go down to the shops and it crying because you arn't going far and it's not worth it because it could do so much more, this sounds very very strange and iffy all you need is for it to have a mood swing and *WOOSH* off it shoots down the road and you get a speeding ticket, what's going to be your excuse, Sorry officer my car is having a bad day?

~Cameron