‘SMILES PER HOUR’
SCIENCE PROVES THAT FIAT IS THE HAPPY CAR BRAND
It’s what we had always thought – FIAT really does offer more ‘Smiles Per Hour’
Ever wondered why FIAT drivers look so happy? It could be the cars’ stylish exteriors, their comfortable interiors – perhaps it’s their nippy, economical performance. It’ll be for all those reasons, and more. But how do you measure that happiness? In ‘Smiles per Hour’ of course!
And now it’s been scientifically proven!
Research was commissioned by FIAT, who teamed up with Dr Duncan Williams, a cognitive scientist specialising in affective computing — the study of human emotion through technology. His brief was to create a ‘Smiles Per Hour' metric for the new FIAT Grande Panda, to reveal how often drivers smile when behind the wheel.
Commenting on his methodology, Dr Williams says, “Using Google AI’s MediaPipe facial geometry framework, we detect changes across 468 facial landmarks to identify genuine smiles and moments of real driving joy.”
How did it work?
To coincide with the UK launch of the new FIAT Grande Panda, a group of willing participants were let loose in leafy Surrey, driving Hybrid versions of Grande Panda and our family favourite, FIAT 600.
Interior cameras, mounted facing the drivers, captured the number of times they smiled during their time behind the wheel.
…and the results?
Thirty participants took part in structured 15-minute test drives over two days in Fiat Grande Panda, with the frequency of ‘smile events’ calculated. The system produced a SPH score by calculating the frequency of smiles over the 15-minute driving time, multiplied by four to give Smiles Per Hour scores
The result for Grande Panda was an astonishing 258.1 SPH. Why astonishing? Because, as the above video explains, the average Brit only manages 14 smiles per day!
We’ll be posting more SPH scores for other Fiat models soon.