If you’ve paid any attention to announcements from major automakers in the last year or so, you may have spotted a recurring theme: connected cars.

Beyond connecting with the Internet, smartphones, infrastructure and other cars, future cars are also set to become the next wave of pseudo health and fitness trackers.

Automakers are researching ways to integrate wearables (fitness trackers and smartwatches) and embedded sensors with vehicles to monitor a driver’s vitals such as heart rate, breathing, skin temperature, brainwaves, and more to detect everything from sleepiness to a heart attack.

Using data collected from wearables or embedded sensors, your car’s self-driving technology could determine if you are fit to drive, and if it determines you are not, take control of the vehicle to prevent an accident.

Below we take a look at what major automakers are doing in an effort to turn future smart cars into health and fitness trackers.

Your Ford will know if you had a sleepless night

Researchers at Ford Motor Company’s new Automotive Wearables Experience laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan are working to integrate wearable devices and vehicles.

Linking a driver’s vital health information obtained from a wearable device to in-vehicle driver-assist technologies, including lane-keeping assist and Ford’s Blind Spot Information System, will help prevent accidents – especially in situations where the driver is stressed or fatigued, claims Ford.

For example, lane-keeping assist could become more sensitive if data from a connected smartwatch indicates that the driver did not get a good night’s rest. Or, if a driver’s heart rate increases in stressful driving situations, like high-traffic areas, the vehicles adaptive cruise control or Blind Spot Information System could automatically increase the vehicle’s follow distance, allowing the driver more time to respond in case of an emergency.

Like your wife, your Jaguar will read your mind

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive’s “Sixth Sense” research project is taking a different approach by adapting technology from sports, medicine and aerospace to monitor a driver’s heart rate, respiration levels and brainwave activity to detect driver stress, fatigue and lack of concentration.

Adapting methods used respectively by NASA and the U.S. bobsleigh team to develop a pilot’s or athlete’s concentration and focus, Jaguar’s “Mind Sense” research aims to see if a car could effectively read the brainwaves that indicate a driver is beginning to “daydream, or feeling sleepy, whilst driving.”

Sensors embedded in the car’s steering wheel detect a driver’s brainwaves through the hands and, dependent of which type of brainwave is dominant, the on-board computer could determine if the driver is focused, daydreaming, sleepy, or distracted.

This data can then be used to determine if semi-autonomous or even fully-autonomous driver-assist technologies need to take over control of the vehicle.

Additionally, Jaguar researchers are developing a “Wellness Seat” which incorporates a medical-grade sensor, originally developed for use in hospitals, capable of detecting vibrations from a driver’s heart beat and breathing pattern.

By monitoring a driver’s heart rate and breathing, the car’s on-board computer will be able to identify medical emergencies that could lead to accidents and monitor driver stress levels. For example, the car can reduce driver stress by changing mood lighting, playing relaxing music or setting a comfortable temperature.

Hyundai is as serious about heart attacks as… well, a heart attack

Hyundai Motor America, like Ford, is developing a system that uses a connected wearable to monitor a driver’s heart rate. If the data from the wearable shows that the driver is impaired – having a heart attack, for example – the vehicle’s driver-assist systems will pull the vehicle over and even dial 911 for medical assistance.

Hyundai used a computer generated video to show how its technology could work in a real-life medical emergency situation at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show.

The video simulates a driver experiencing an elevated heart rate and subsequent loss of consciousness, all of which is captured by the smartwatch and sent to the car’s on-board computer in real-time.

Having identified an emergency situation, the vehicle’s driver-assist technology took control and pulled the vehicle over – after determining it was safe to do so.

Leave jet lag in the dust with Kia’s mood lighting

At this year’s North America International Auto Show Kia Motors America unveiled Telluride, a SUV concept that uses sensors embedded in the seats to capture a passenger’s vital health information.

Vitals are then displayed on interior doorpanel-mounted screens that synchronize with a Light Emitted Rejuvenation (LER) system.

The LER system uses a roof-mounted LED panel to display a pattern of therapeutic light to treat jet lag and boost a passenger’s energy levels.

Audi wants you to breathe in, breathe out and drive on

Audi AG recently announced its Audi Fit Driver project that uses connected wearables to monitor a driver’s vitals such as heart rate, respiration and skin temperature.

If data from the wearable indicates that the driver is feeling stressed or fatigued, the vehicle’s on-board systems can take steps to relax, perk up, or protect the driver.

For example, if the driver is feeling stressed, the vehicles systems can deliver a seat massage, adjust the climate control, and adjust infotainment and lighting settings. Audi Fit Driver will even provide “biofeedback” in the form of a video tutorial that gets the stressed driver to perform a breathing exercise to help calm the nerves.

Audi Fit Driver will eventually also include the use of driver-assist technologies to safely stop the vehicle and call for medical assistance in the event of a medical emergency that prevents the driver from driving.

Image credit: Luke Jones, Flickr