Toyota is working with Stanford University and Affective Media for a few years to create a car that can read your feelings.

The Pod concept car has headlights that fade from bright to dull and change color to indicate happy, sad or angry moods, depending on the driver’s mood.

Affective Media CEO, Christian Jones, says the car would be able to detect, for example, if the driver is stressed about running late and tell them the best possible route.

“It would give certain information that would help. If they were in a hurry, the car would work out the safer, faster route instead of, perhaps, a scenic route,” he explained. “The in-car voice would talk to you in an attempt to improve the state of your mood.” Other mood improvers could include playing soothing music.

It would also be able to detect whether the driver was drowsy by identifying signs such as quiet, flat speech, and could then trigger an alarm to rouse the driver.

Jones believed the car could be on roads within three or four years.

Via CNN.
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