Your car may soon have its eyes on yours – every minute

You car may soon be watching you. Technology that watches your eyes as you drive and warns you when they are off the road for too long is quickly being implemented by automakers. 

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) employs the use of a lens behind the steering wheel to warn drivers when their eyes stray to text, doze off or engage in other distractions.

"This eye-tracking technology will largely be one component in a portfolio of systems that help assist and support the drivers into the future," said Jeremy Carlson, a senior analyst for IHS Automotive.

How does ADAS work?

The technology monitors the eye's movements by tracking eye-direction and how quickly a driver blinks and reopens his eyes. For example, the blinking patterns for drivers that are fatigued or drowsy tend to slow down

"It looks at how wide open your eyes are during the drive state. And kind of looking at that and trying to interpret how it is changing over time to signal how fatigued or distracted you might be," Carlson said.

And while ADAS is not standard in new vehicles, the pace of innovation within the automotive industry has been quickening thanks to shorter product cycles and faster implementation of new technologies, according to Carlson.

Seeing Machines is one company behind ADAS that is currently working with several car manufacturers to implement the technology. Toyota and Lexus already offer an option to warn drivers if they are not looking ahead and might have a collision.

In the U.S., more than nine people are killed and over 1,153 people are injured in accidents each day that involve a distracted driver, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  In 2012, more than 3,300 people were killed in car crashed involving distracted driving.

Could ADAS help prevent tragedies on the roadways?

"It's certainly something that can help keep drivers on task in this day and age of driver distraction with smartphones and other things being brought into the vehicle. It is important that we keep drivers focused on the task at hand, and this is one way that these systems within the vehicle can help," Carlson said.