Ford has decided to drop its heart attack-detecting seat project over recent advancements made in the world of wearable technology.
Back in October, Ford announced it was developing a seat that would monitor the cardiovascular system of a driver to look for "signs of irregularity," according to Ford Social.
The idea was great. A seat strapped with six sensors would interact with a steering wheel attached with a camera and its own sensors to detect early signs of a heart attack. If the system detected increased heart activity a message would display on the dash telling the driver to pull over.
If a driver failed to notice the alert before suffering a heart attack the system would take over steering and braking to bring the vehicle to a complete stop, while contacting local authorities at the same time.
Sounds pretty good, right? Ford even had a budget of $5.5 billion to spend on the project with the intention of adding the seats to Ford vehicles sometime before 2020, according to the Daily Mail.
Check out a video of prototype Ford released last fall below.
Now, Ford is "transitioning away" from the project, thanks to wearable technology advancements like the Apple Watch that also monitor the cardiovascular system, according to Financial Times.
"New sensor technology and wearables will provide more precise measurements that will improve the experience we can offer," Ford said to Financial Times. "We need to be smart and move at the pace of technology to stay ahead of consumer trends."
Ford told Financial Times the project only reached the "research phase" and all plans for implementing the seats into Ford vehicles before the end of the decade have been canceled.
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