Ford Sleep Suit (Sleepy suit)

2018: Development of a suit

On November 22, 2018 the Ford company provided the "sleepy suit" imitating a status of extreme fatigue of the driver.

Ford emphasized that overfatigue is a basic reason of almost every fifth accident. According to the experts, the lack of a dream on an extent of more than 18 hours can lead to deterioration in capability to driving which is comparable with exceeding of the admissible blood alcohol level in many countries. The problem of the road accident including made in an exhaustion status is particularly acute among the beginning drivers. According to researches, in many countries of the world road incidents are the leading cause of death among young people, in the USA participants of the majority of the accidents caused by fatigue and a sleep debt are drivers up to 25 years. To emphasize importance of this problem, the Ford company developed a special "sleepy suit" which allows to feel as far as fatigue weakens attention of the driver.

"When the driver takes the wheel in a fatigue status, he risks to behave on the road as the zombie. It becomes dangerous to itself(himself), passengers and other participants of traffic. Young people very often practice a deliberate deprivation of a dream, forcing themselves to be awake to cope at the same time with a set of tasks which for them are set by their active social life, permanent processings and preparation for examinations". doctor Gundolf Maier-Henshel, director of Meyer-Hentschel Institute

The suit includes the special glasses imitating extreme degree of fatigue, including a microdream – uncontrollable reaction to such status. During a microdream the driver can go blindly 10 seconds and more, at the same time it is not obligatory blindly. During this time it is possible to pass hundreds of meters. Moreover, the person can even not notice that he fell asleep driving, noted in Ford.

The points connected to the application for the smartphone can be configured so that they simulated temporary "switching off" of a brain, at the same time the driver actually sees nothing before himself half a second, and then longer and longer, up to 10 seconds. In addition to points the suit consists of a special cap, a vest, bandages on wrists and anklebones – the total weight of a suit exceeds 18 kg – therefore the complete effect of that extent of deterioration in attention and physical fatigue which arises at overfatigue of the driver is created, the developer claims.