A research team at Nagoya University is developing a system to help the elderly drive safely using a small robot, with the aim of releasing the technology by 2019.

A research team at Nagoya University is developing a system to help the elderly drive safely using a small robot, with the aim of releasing the technology by 2019. Authorities in Japan are stepping up measures aimed at encouraging the elderly to give up their driver's license as the number of fatal road accidents involving drivers aged 75 or older shows no sign of decreasing. But the research team, helmed by professor Hirofumi Aoki and associate professor Takahiro Tanaka of the university's Institute of Innovation for Future Society, hopes to create a society where they can still enjoy driving. The team is developing a 20-cm tall robot that uses a friendly voice and gestures to give warnings to senior drivers. "There are many blind spots at the intersection ahead," the robot said from where it is perched next to the driver's seat.