Silver Auto: How the Car Industry Is Rethinking Its Appeal to Older Drivers

Photo by Narvikk/iStockphoto

I’m at the wheel of a red Ford Fusion, waiting at a stoplight, when a small child walks in front of my car. Suddenly, I seem to sink into my seat and lose sight of him. Adding to my confusion, a big purple SUV speeds by to my right, and I sense, but do not see, a low-slung sports car blasting past. This is not a safe situation.

Fortunately, it’s not real, either.

I’m inside Ford’s “immersive virtual review” lab, sitting in a crude approximation of a car interior, with no wheels, doors or engine attached. But to me, the situation seems frighteningly realistic because I’m wearing virtual reality goggles and gloves that transport me into a vivid, 3-D alternative world.

My hands, head and eye movements are being transmitted to oversize computer screens monitored by Elizabeth Baron, Ford’s advanced visualization technology specialist. To give me the point of view of a little old lady in a complicated driving situation, Baron had simply tapped a few coordinates into her computer and clicked me down in size.

This simulator is one of the new ways Ford is preparing for the wave of aging drivers. “We are looking at all populations of people, with increased focus on baby boomers and older populations,” says Ford engineer Eero Laansoo. “As technology migrates from the house to the car, it’s our job to make sure the technology can be operated safely.”

Ford is not alone. All automakers are accelerating their efforts to design cars that accommodate older drivers. But they’re not crafting the floaty, boaty cars of yore that swaddled drivers in tufted velour within tanklike vehicles.

Instead, carmakers are going high-tech. Engineers are donning “age suits” that simulate the mobility limitations of arthritis and filmy yellow goggles that mimic cataracts. Product planners are poring over medical research on fading eyesight to find ways to enhance our view of the road. Researchers are analyzing crash data and interviewing accident victims to engineer cars that respond more quickly to dangerous situations. And automakers are working with academics, government agencies and AARP to come up with new concepts for cars that will safely transport older drivers who aren’t ready to give up the keys.

“What’s important to AARP is that people drive as long as they can—safely,” says Elinor Ginzler, AARP senior vice president of livable communities. “For the older population, there’s no question that the car is a symbol of independence.”

The Expanding Market
And that older population is growing fast. By 2020, there will be 40 million drivers on the road who are 65 and older, up from 30 million today, predicts the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab, which aims to improve quality of life for older citizens. Already, more than half of car purchases in America are made by people 50-plus.

To keep making inroads with them, automakers are developing and deploying new technologies that help older drivers make split-second decisions—or even take control if a driver doesn’t act. “The car is getting increasingly intelligent,” says Joe Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab. “At least 40 percent of the car now is a computer on wheels.”

Many of these technologies first show up on luxury cars priced north of $40,000. Eventually, though, they migrate to mainstream models. Here are some examples of new computer power:

Damage control. Lexus, Volvo and Acura offer a high-tech cruise control that aims to prevent you from rear-ending the car in front of you. On the highway, if you get too close to another car, you receive an audible warning, like a chiming bell. If you don’t hit the brakes, the gas pedal starts pulsing against your lead foot to tell you to back off. If you still don’t respond, the system hits the brakes for you, to avoid or at least lessen the impact of a crash. All of this happens in a matter of seconds.

Straight and narrow. BMW, Volvo and Nissan offer systems that warn you when you’re veering out of your lane. If a BMW’s sensors detect you’ve crossed the line, its steering wheel vibrates to simulate driving over rumble strips on the road shoulder. Volvos and Nissans ring a chime if you change lanes without signaling. (These systems can be turned off if they become too annoying, but automakers hope they will train you to signal more often.)

Blind spot alert. Chrysler, Cadillac and Volvo offer blind spot sensors that are particularly helpful to drivers who have difficulty turning their heads. When the sensors detect a car in your blind spot, a warning light shows up on or near your side-view mirror.

Noise Pollution
Even if these new safety systems sound helpful, might all of their beeps, buzzes and blinks end up causing more distraction than help? After all, these inputs are being added in cockpits already abuzz with talking navigation systems, Bluetooth-enabled cellphones and surround-sound stereo systems.

“There is concern that older drivers might find that distracting,” says Anne McCartt, a researcher for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “The challenge for the automakers is to ensure that these alerts and signals do what they’re intended to do and not have some counterproductive effect.” Indeed, to avoid information overload, Volvo’s lane departure warning won’t go off if its collision mitigation system is already warning the driver of an impending crash.

Not all of the enhancements are geared toward high-speed driving. Thanks to results of research by engineers who put on age suits that limit mobility and vision, for instance, some Toyota models now offer exterior door handles that you can wrap your entire hand around. That allows you to use primarily arm muscles to open the door rather than depend on just your fingers and wrist to operate flip-up handles, a difficult task for someone with arthritis.

Toyota also engineered into its Camry sedan a playing-card-size “assist plate,” attached to the door side of the driver’s seat cushion, where drivers can place a palm to help guide themselves in and out of the car. And Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury line, has just introduced a high-tech feature that’s particularly helpful to drivers with limited mobility and vision: Called the Around View Monitor, it uses miniature cameras at the front, rear and both sides of an EX35 to create a composite bird’s-eye view of your car and surrounding vehicles and obstacles. The image, displayed on the navigation screen, makes parallel parking or creeping through a shopping mall a safer proposition.

For driving around town, Volvo is about to launch an automatic braking system that only works at speeds below 20 miles per hour, speeds at which 75 percent of all accidents occur. The City Safety System debuting next year on the Volvo XC60 automatically engages the brakes when it senses you are coming up on another car but not taking action.

For Ford, the work in the immersive virtual review lab may be paying off. Its Flex crossover now hitting the road features a larger navigation screen, with easier-to-read graphics and one-touch voice-activated controls that eliminate fumbling when you need to enter an address. Later this year, Ford will launch its hybrid Fusion sedan with large, easier-to-read gauges.

What's Next?
Down the road, automakers are looking for still more ways to help us stay safe behind the wheel. For drivers with fading vision, GM is developing a windshield based on guidance systems for military jets. Using infrared sensors designed to see through fog, the system superimposes lines on the windshield indicating the edge of the road or outlines on the windshield a sign that indicates a change in speed limit. Another future innovation might be the option to design our own dashboards, much like we now configure our computer desktops. You could make gauges larger, the contrast easier on the eye or the colors more vivid.

Of course, the quickest way to turn off boomers is to offer them a car explicitly for geezers. The key to keeping them engaged, age experts say, is to provide technology that looks cool, functions easily and doesn’t remind them of their limitations.

“The future of the car is personalization,” says Coughlin of the AgeLab. “The boomers will buy a customized dashboard because it’s about ‘me.’ It’s not about whether I can see the gauges.”

It will probably be 10 years before you’ll be designing your own dashboard or deploying the infrared guidance system on your car. For now, plenty of older drivers will take all the high-tech gadgets directed at them. Like Kenneth Resnik: The 71-year-old retired judge, who lives in Las Vegas, especially likes the backup sensors on his Cadillac that warn him if he’s about to run over something. Whatever it takes to keep him behind the wheel, Resnik wholeheartedly favors.

“I want to drive as long as I possibly can,” he says, “because for me, it is a measure of my freedom.”

Indeed, the call of the open road never gets old.

Keith Naughton is Newsweek magazine’s Midwest Bureau chief. Based in Detroit, Naughton has covered the auto industry for more than two decades.