Academic

Fear For Sale: Volvo's Psychokiller Detector

By Dan Filler

I must not have been paying attention but I've only recently discovered, watching a Volvo ad, that the car now offers an optional "heartbeat sensor" - or psycho killer detector as another arch blogger put it.  This neat little product alerts a driver, on her key fob, if there is a heartbeat detected in a car.  This will help avoid those nasty horror-movie scenarios when a person is sitting inside the car waiting to assault the returning driver.

But seriously folks, does this happen a dozen times in the United States per year?  I'm always impressed with American ingenuity when it comes to translating pathological fear of rare crimes into profits.  It's really nice to see that political and media paranoia campaigns do more than just produce bad criminal justice policy.  They also generate sales.  This is old news in the sex offender registry biz where several sites offer free searches for a fee.

There are suggestions that a second use of this technology is to help remind parents when they've left children in the car.   That's a rare enough phenomenon, but it does happen.  Alas, Volvo's advertising is directed entirely to the psycho killer scenario since that frame apparently sells the donuts.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on February 26, 2008 (boomark / email).