Toyota works to make driving while elderly easier, safer

Japan is getting older -- much older. By some estimates, 30 percent of Japanese city dwellers will be 65 or older by 2040. Never mind its financial implications: This demographic time bomb may be a recipe for on-road mayhem.

According to Toyota, more seniors mean more driving accidents -- and “approximately half of all traffic accidents involving senior drivers occur in or in the vicinity of intersections, with approximately 50 percent caused by failure to exercise due care.”

That's why the automaker has chosen 50 drivers age 65 and older to serve as guinea pigs, using in-car recorders to observe them as they weave through traffic, bumble distractedly through intersections and … wait, were we talking about texting teens or the elderly?

Either way, Toyota isn't simply setting these drivers loose to wreak havoc. The cars are also equipped with “an onboard camera that detects stop signs and red traffic lights at intersections,” as well as “a warnings system that issues aural and visual warnings to the driver if intersections are approached at high speed.”

Toyota is hoping to use this distracted/senile driving data to build safer cars better able to react to dangerous situations before they become accidents. It's a laudable goal, but we're pretty sure we know where all this technology is going to lead us…

By Graham Kozak