On March 24th, 2022 a new patent asset for Toyota was published relating to a system for remote vital sign monitoring in a vehicle. The system is able to recognize the location of the driver and a machine learning system uses movement data to generate information on vital signs. This is extremely useful for safety during driving. Additionally, it is more convenient for users as they would not need to put on the technology, unlike many other commercially available technologies for monitoring vital signs, which require contact-based sensors. Another advantage of the system is that, unlike systems that use skin displacement to monitor vital signs remotely, the vibrations of the car will not interfere with the measurements. 

Other notable players in driving monitoring systems include Tata Elxsi, Johnson Controls, Continental, and Bosch. Moreover, the market is likely to grow significantly as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill signed by President Biden on November 15th, 2021 required automakers to install driving monitoring systems to detect intoxicated or impaired drivers. Therefore, as many competitors will need advanced monitoring systems, we can expect to see many other automobile manufacturers patenting this type of technology. 

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