Harman Introduces Ready Care Platform To Improve Road Safety & Comfort

Samsung’s subsidiary, Harman, which is behind iconic audio brands like Harman Kardon, JBL, and AKG amongst others has launched the Ready Care platform which will be offered to its automotive OEM partners as a part of its infotainment system offering.

Ready Care is a set of solutions – Cognitive Distraction, Stress-Free Routing, and Personalised Comfort – that can work together or independently to improve safety and reduce driver stress,” Harman explains.

The solution measures the cognitive load for drivers in real-time, which response with customised interventions for distraction, drowsiness and even anxiety. The solution also provides safety, advanced routing and more comfort measures to the customer or drivers. Harman has devised machine learning algorithms which capture data from the onboard cameras inside the vehicle and sensors to monitor the driver’s state accordingly.

“Safety remains a top concern for consumers when considering a new vehicle purchase – and now, with Ready Care, OEMs can improve vehicle safety in a significant new way,” said Armin Prommersberger, Senior Vice President, Automotive Product Management at HARMAN International.

“Ready Care is essentially a co-pilot, spotting when distractions could turn into dangerous situations and intervening to avoid them. For the first time, the vehicle can know what the driver is thinking; this is a game changer. We are incredibly proud of and excited by the impact Ready Care will have for drivers, passengers, and everyone on the road,” he added,

This system is like Intel’s onboard fleet management system that was launched a couple of months ago in India, but this is more focused on the consumer segment of the market. While it is still a B2B solution, Harman’s clients are more consumer-oriented like Tata Motors. So, in the future, we can expect these new features to trickle down to its cars.

On balance, Harman's Ready Care is also not as sophisticated as Intel's solution, but it is something that can be deployed at a greater scale because it will be cheaper to implement.