gilesjuk wrote: ...The argument is should technology be used to assist people on the roads?....
That happens already with all manner of devices. It seems to me that one of the problems which often goes unnoticed is the way that the potential safety improvements of existing technological advances eg cats' eyes, ABS, anti-skid surfacing, are simply consumed by people travelling faster rather than more safely. One of the things mentioned in the link is night vision equipment and I suspect that would be used in exactly that way.
I understand that the umbrella project for this research was about using IT to improve social inclusion - it's taken a bit of lateral think to stretch that to research into gadgets for cars, whoever uses them.
You can't beat a bit of controversy, of course, and old fogeys at the wheel is up there with illegal immigrants and cyclists. I don't know how many people die at the wheel and how many of those are into bus pass territory but I do suspect that the reporting cases of confused, elderly drivers doing something silly, even if there is no collision, magnifies the public perception of their being a problem. And on the subject of bus passes, it's amazing to me the amount of hostility that they cause.
If I've understood the the article correctly, then it seems that the researchers are using some sort of equipment which has the potential for detecting drivers who are past their sell by date, and that may be the best use for it.