Seat cancelled a production shift scheduled for tomorrow (14 March) because the coronavirus outbreak had hit its supply chain, according to a spokesman.

The VW Group Spanish company maintained all other shifts at its Martorell plant near Barcelona, Spain, this week, he told Reuters.

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About 1,200 people were scheduled to work on the cancelled shift, the only one that day, a Seat union source told the news agency.

Seat had said earlier it was considering sending staff home temporarily due to supply chain issues.

Separately, earlier this week Seat said it was researching and developing artificial intelligence technology to combat driver fatigue and improve road safety.

Its Xplora team, in conjunction with Eyesight Technologies, is developing advanced technology that studies a driver's eyes and head movement to detect if they are falling asleep or are distracted. It uses an algorithm which analyses eye openness, angle of vision, blink rate and head position of the driver, along with other visual attributes.

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