While many French people are preparing to spend, or have already spent, many hours in the car to go on vacation, it is worth remembering that fatigue is the leading cause of fatal accidents on the motorway. It is precisely to tackle this problem that Nicolas Vera has developed "Core for Tech", software designed to detect falling asleep at the wheel as quickly as possible. Mainly intended, for the moment, for professional drivers, in particular for truck drivers, this device could eventually be integrated into all vehicles. The CEO of Core Technology came to present his project on Wednesday, in "La France Bouge" on Europe 1.
A connected watch for measuring heart rate
Concretely, "Core for Tech" works thanks to a connected watch, linked to an application. All this makes it possible to study the heart rate and its variations. "It is thanks to this expertise, developed with the Lille hospital center, that we will be able to develop a permanent indicator for measuring and predicting falling asleep at the wheel," explains Nicolas Vera. And the word "prediction" is important since the first visible signs of fatigue, such as a stiff neck or itchy eyes, are actually very late and need to be stopped immediately. While "Core for Tech" is able to detect fatigue "five, ten, up to twenty minutes before the first visible signs of falling asleep".
>> Find all the programs "La France Bouge" in replay and podcast here
At that moment, "a soft voice will warn you that you are entering a period of fatigue. And we will tell you how long you can still drive safely", adds Nicolas Vera. The software also takes into account the road conditions. "Depending on the traffic, the type of road, the weather", falling asleep will not occur at the same time.
Privileged trucks
Having a global vision of the context, with both the driver's heart measurements and the traffic conditions, allows fleet managers, who are currently the first “Core for Tech” customers, to adapt. "For example, one of our customers decided to bring his morning departures forward by 30 minutes, since he noticed that he reduced the fatigue of his drivers by up to 30%, without losing productivity", underlines the CEO of the start-up.
Professional drivers are the core target of the software he has developed. If trucks like cars can adopt "Core for Tech", the former are privileged. Firstly, because heavy truck drivers fall asleep more often, according to Nicolas Vera. But also because the trucks are already equipped with on-board measurement systems. Drivers are therefore accustomed and have had no trouble, assures the general manager of Core Technology, to adopt the system. "We thought to do a test on 300 trucks this year, in July we are already at 500 and we will reach 1,000 in the coming weeks."
"Core for Tech" works on a monthly subscription for each driver. The subscription includes, or not, the rental of connected watches. And Nicolas Vera anticipates a generalization of his software to individuals from 2023, when car manufacturers will be legally required to integrate driver condition measurements into their systems. To achieve this, the start-up has launched a fundraiser that it hopes to complete "before the end of the year".