High-tech helmet sensor knows when you crash and then calls for help

By Trevor Mogg Published September 19, 2012

Last week Anthony Margrave took his new motorbike out for a spin near his home in Yorkshire, England. But he didn’t come home.

His girlfriend raised the alarm and the emergency services went out looking for him, but after two long days of searching they failed to locate either Margrave or his bike.

Recommended Videos

Then, three days after going missing, a small amount of motorbike debris was found on a country road. After a thorough search of the nearby area, police discovered Margrave at the bottom of a 180cm-deep roadside ditch. Incredibly, the 40-year-old Brit was still alive, though badly injured. Unable to reach his phone due to his injuries, he had only been able to call out, but being in such a remote area, nobody heard him.

Margrave is currently recovering in hospital, surrounded by family and friends who’d been starting to wonder if they’d ever see him again.

This miracle story ties in nicely with news of the creation of a helmet-based crash sensor – something which Margrave may well consider getting, should he ever climb back on a bike.

Made by a company based in Oklahoma, the small ICEdot device, which attaches to any helmet, is capable of detecting an impact suffered by its wearer. Communicating with the ICEdot app on the user’s smartphone, a message is then sent out to a family member or friend informing them of the incident, together with GPS data pinpointing their location. Such a device would be ideal for cyclists, motorcyclists, horse riders, skiers….you get the idea.

A countdown clock starts upon impact, giving the user time to cancel sending the message should the incident not require an emergency response.

ICEdot partnered with Colorado-based SenseTech LLC to create the product. Dr. Tim Bauer of SenseTech built an early version of the sensor following a cycling accident where he banged his head. “ICEdot goes into action when an individual cannot,” he said.

The device is making its debut this week at the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas and is expected to cost around $200 when it hits the market next year.

[GearJunkie via Tecca]

Topics

Emerging Tech

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Cars

Range Rover’s first electric SUV has 48,000 pre-orders

Land Rover Range Rover Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition

Range Rover, the brand made famous for its British-styled, luxury, all-terrain SUVs, is keen to show it means business about going electric.

And, according to the most recent investor presentation by parent company JLR, that’s all because Range Rover fans are showing the way. Not only was demand for Range Rover’s hybrid vehicles up 29% in the last six months, but customers are buying hybrids “as a stepping stone towards battery electric vehicles,” the company says.

Cars

BYD’s cheap EVs might remain out of Canada too

BYD Han

With Chinese-made electric vehicles facing stiff tariffs in both Europe and America, a stirring question for EV drivers has started to arise: Can the race to make EVs more affordable continue if the world leader is kept out of the race?

China’s BYD, recognized as a global leader in terms of affordability, had to backtrack on plans to reach the U.S. market after the Biden administration in May imposed 100% tariffs on EVs made in China.

Cars

Tesla posts exaggerate self-driving capacity, safety regulators say

Beta of Tesla's FSD in a car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.