Driving while being tired is a serious threat to the safety of everyone on the road, including yourself. Almost all drivers consider it dangerous and unacceptable for someone to take control of a vehicle when they are having problems keeping their eyes open.
The statistics behind tired driving are astounding. We all know there is not enough time in the day to accomplish everything we set out to do and many drivers find themselves behind the wheel tired. More than 1 in 4 drivers have admitted to driving tired in the past 30 days. One in five have reported doing this more than once, with 2% reporting driving tired regularly.
As a result, there have been around 328,000 police-reported crashes per year, including 6,400 deaths.
Nissan has set out to help alarm sleepy drivers when they may be dozing off behind the wheel. Nissan has developed the Driver Attention Alert (DAA) system, which detects erratic driving caused by drowsiness.
Using steering angle sensors, DAA monitors steering input patterns to establish a baseline or a "snapshot" of how you were driving. It then continuously compares subsequent driving patterns to the most recent snapshot using a statistical analysis of steering corrections.
DAA will alert you when it senses you are tired by:
1. Sounding an audible chime
2. Displaying an amber coffee cup in the instrument panel
3. Displaying the message "Take a break?" next to the coffee cup
This system is currently available on the 2015 Murano, and will be available on the 2016 Maxima Platinum Grade - coming Summer 2015.
