Even when they’re not fully autonomous, our cars are getting smarter and smarter.

There are models that can park themselves, steer back into the right lane, and warn drowsy drivers when they are about to nod off.

Now, Japanese carmaker Mazda has announced that models to be available next year will be able to detect when a driver is incapacitated by a stroke or heart attack.

The car will also be able to signal an alarm to other road users and pilot itself to a safe parking spot.

By 2025, they should be able to spot the warning signs of an impending health issue before the driver is even ill.

The technology could be particularly valuable in Mazda’s home market as Japan has one of the world’s most advanced aging populations.

Takahiro Tochioka, the engineer in charge of the project, said that he hoped that the technology could encourage older people to continue to drive throughout their lifetimes.

The system, which will be made available in affordable as well as top-of-the-range models, uses data collected from cameras strategically placed inside the vehicle.

As far as issues of privacy are concerned, the data itself does not actually leave the vehicle.

The vehicle can warn other road users and park itself safely

Mazda has been working with medical experts, including doctors at Tsukuba University Hospital, to create image data banks with which to train the system to recognise the differences between a healthy and an incapacitated driver.

When a problem is detected, the system will trigger warning signals, which have yet to be decided on but could include honking horns and flashing hazard lights.

An emergency call will also be placed automatically to ambulance services and police, as the vehicle’s co-pilot finds the nearest safe place to park and pulls up.

Tochioka said that the system also relied on the cooperation of drivers around the car in trouble, but Mazda hopes that this assumption of public goodwill would not be an issue in Japan.

Moving forward, the project is working on allowing the system to identify potential health problems before the driver becomes aware that they might be ill.

The system will analyse images from the cameras and look for signs such as the way that the driver focuses their vision, sways of their head, and subtle changes in their driving.

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