Audi planning to bring fitness-tracking tech to its cars

PanARMENIAN.Net - Audi is hoping to bring fitness-tracking tech to four wheels with its new Fit Driver system, Autoblog reports.

No surprise, the new program was announced at the technophile's paradise that is the Consumer Electronics Show.

Paired with a wearable, like an Apple Watch or FitBit, that would monitor heart rate and skin temperature, the car's sensors can track a driver's breathing and driving style.

This data can be analyzed alongside weather and traffic information, effectively allowing the car to determine how stressed or tired a driver is. Systems within the vehicle would then be tweaked to "relax, vitalize, or even protect the driver." This can take the form of an automatic massage and adjustments to the cabin temperature, ambient lighting, and infotainment. So when you're about to go full road rage because there's a Camry doing ten under in the left lane, Sirius could flip on the easy listening of Watercolors to calm you down.

Naturally, this technology is still in the early stages, and there's no word about when it could actually arrive in production vehicles. But as driverless systems evolve, Audi is aiming to develop such an advanced health suite that an autonomous vehicle could detect a medical emergency, pull over safely, and call for assistance.