The potential of naturalistic driving studies with simple data acquisition systems (DAS) for monitoring driver behaviour

This report addresses the important question regarding the potential of simple and low-cost technologies to address research questions such as the ones dealt with in UDrive. The resources and efforts associated with big naturalistic studies, such as the American SHRP II and the European UDrive, are tremendous and can not be repeated and supported frequently, or even more than once in a decade (or a life time..). Naturally, the wealth and richness of the integrated data, gathered by such substantial studies and elaborated DAS, cannot be compared to data collected via simpler, nomadic data collection technologies. The question that needs to be asked is how many Research Questions (RQs) can be addressed, at least to some extent, by other low-cost and simple technologies? This discussion is important, not only in order to replace the honourable place (and cost!) of naturalistic studies, but also to complement and enable their continuity after their completion. Technology is rapidly evolving and almost any attempt to provide a comprehensive and complete state of the art of existing technologies (as well as their features and cost) is doomed to fail. Hence, in chapter 1 of this report, we have created a framework for presentation, on which the various important parameters associated with the question at hand, are illustrated, positioned and discussed. This framework is denoted by “Framework for Naturalistic Studies” (FNS) and serves as the back bone of this report. The framework is a conceptual framework and hence, is flexible in the sense that its dimensions, categories and presentation mode are not rigid and can be adjusted to new features and new technologies as they become available. The framework is gradually built using two main dimensions: data collection technology type and sample size. The categories and features of the main dimensions are not rigidly fixed, and their values can be ordinal, quantitative or qualitative. When referring to parameters that are not numerical –even the order relation among categories is not always clear. In this way –the FNS can be, at times, viewed as a matrix rather than a figure with order relation among categories presented along its axes. On the two main dimensions of the FNS –data collection technology type and sample size –other dimensions are incorporated. These dimensions include: cost, data access, specific technologies and research questions that can be addressed by the various technologies. These other dimensions are mapped and positioned in the plot area of the FNS. Other presentations, in which the axes and the plot area are interchanged, or 3 -dimensional presentations are performed, can be incorporated to highlight specific angles of the involved dimensions. The various technologies for data collection were mapped on the FNS. The technology groups include: mobile phone location services, mobile phone applications, telematics devices, built -in data loggers, dash cameras and enhanced dash cameras, wearable technologies, compound systems, eye trackers and Mobileyetype technologies. After this detailed illustrations of analyses that can be conducted using simple low-cost technologies are described. It is demonstrated how temporal and spatial analysis can reveal important aspects on the behavioural patterns of risky drivers. Also one stand alone smartphone app can be used to monitor and evaluate smartphone us age while driving. Most of the simple systems relate to specific behaviour that is monitored (i.e. speeding , lane keeping etc.). Additionally, certain thresholds or triggers are used to single out risky situations, which are related to that behaviour. However, once those instances are detected, no information on the circumstances leading or accompanying this behaviour are available. Typically, visual information (discrete or preferably continuous) is needed in order to fully understand the circumstances. Hence, upgrading simple (single-task oriented) technologies by other technologies (most typically by cameras), can significantly improve researchers' ability to obtain information on the circumstances, which accompany the detected risky behaviour. One of the most conceptually straightforward integrated systems is a system, for which the basic technology detects the desired behaviour (e.g. harsh braking) and triggers a simple continuous dashboard camera to save the relevant information, which occurs together with that behaviour. Many RQs can be addressed using this type of combined systems

A user experience‐based toolset for automotive human‐machine interface technology development

The development of new automotive Human-Machine Interface (HMI) technologies must consider the competing and often conflicting demands of commercial value, User Experience (UX) and safety. Technology innovation offers manufacturers the opportunity to gain commercial advantage in a competitive and crowded marketplace, leading to an increase in the features and functionality available to the driver. User response to technology influences the perception of the brand as a whole, so it is important that in-vehicle systems provide a high-quality user experience. However, introducing new technologies into the car can also increase accident risk. The demands of usability and UX must therefore be balanced against the requirement for driver safety. Adopting a technology-focused business strategy carries a degree of risk, as most innovations fail before they reach the market. Obtaining clear and relevant information on the UX and safety of new technologies early in their development can help to inform and support robust product development (PD) decision making, improving product outcomes. In order to achieve this, manufacturers need processes and tools to evaluate new technologies, providing customer-focused data to drive development. This work details the development of an Evaluation Toolset for automotive HMI technologies encompassing safety-related functional metrics and UX measures. The Toolset consists of four elements: an evaluation protocol, based on methods identified from the Human Factors, UX and Sensory Science literature; a fixed-base driving simulator providing a context-rich, configurable evaluation environment, supporting both hardware and software-based technologies; a standardised simulation scenario providing a repeatable basis for technology evaluations, allowing comparisons across multiple technologies and studies; and a technology scorecard that collates and presents evaluation data to support PD decision making processes

'Turn right at the King's Head': drivers' requirements for route guidance information

This thesis addresses a fundamental Human Factors question associated with the design of the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) for in-vehicle electronic route guidance systems: what navigation information should such systems provide to drivers? To avoid the development of systems which demand excessive amounts of drivers' attention and processing resources or which are not satisfactory to the intended user population, it is critical that appropriate information is provided when and where needed. However, a review of the relevant literature revealed a paucity of research concerning this issue. [Continues.

Alaska Young Driver Safety: Distracted Driving, Seat Belt Use and Drinking and Driving

Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF PUBLIC HEALTHUnited States teenagers have the highest crash rate of any group in the nation. The data tell us that there are eight identified leading causes of teen injuries and deaths associated with vehicle collisions: Driver inexperience; driving with teen passengers; nighttime driving; not using seat belts; distracted driving; drowsy driving; reckless driving; and impaired driving (CDC, 2014). Alaska data tell a similar story. The leading causes of crashes for Alaskan teen drivers are: driver inattention, unsafe speed, failure to yield and driver inexperience (Alaska Injury Prevention Center, 2012). In partnership with the Alaska Injury Prevention Center, this practicum project created a resource guide identifying best practices in teen driving interventions connected to three of these areas: distracted driving, seat belt use and drinking and driving. The Strategies to Support Safe Teen Driving in Alaska resource guide is intended as a tool for community partners to access information about interventions for distracted driving, seat belt use and drinking and driving for Alaska teens and to work to put those interventions into action in their local communities. Project research efforts included a synthesis review of available intervention reports, including a multi-step filtering process that distilled available program literature down to a final collection of strategies based on best available evidence. These resulting strategies were categorized into a taxonomy identifying currently available approaches, and were also classified into levels of promise associated with certainty of effectiveness and potential population impact. Upon evaluation of intervention types within a Promise Table structure, the strategies found to be most promising were all public policy efforts surrounding graduated drivers’ licensing programs, a minimum legal drinking age at 21, cell phone restrictions while driving and seat belt requirements. In addition, the community role of creating partnerships to prevent unsafe teen driving behaviors, as well as the parental role of boundary setting and monitoring their teen’s driving behavior, were found to have equal levels of promise. Of most significance was the finding identifying the importance of executing teen driving strategies with diverse influences, including all levels of the Social Ecological Model’s influence (i.e. public policy, community, organizational, interpersonal and intrapersonal). Additional priority areas included attention to matters of community culture, public policy, enforcement and parental influence. Resulting recommendations include multiple public policy enhancements in the state of Alaska, including graduated driver’s license program modifications, enhancement of the state’s zero-tolerance policy and broad scale restrictions of driver cell-phone use.Signature Page / Title Page / Abstract / Table of Contents / List of Figures / List of Tables / List of Appendices / Introduction / Background and Significance / Project Goal and Objectives / Methods / Results / Discussion, Strengths and Limitations / Conclusions and Recommendations / References / Appendice

Essays on Creative Ideation and New Product Design

Creative ideation, i.e., the generation of novel ideas, represents the terminus-a-quo in the design and development of innovative products. In my dissertation essays, I examine two approaches employed by firms for creative ideation, (1) channeled ideation, a closed approach, which involves applying replicable patterns or properties observed in historical innovations and (2) idea crowdsourcing, an open approach where firms invite crowds to contribute ideas to solve a specific challenge. In my studies, I clarify how firms can incorporate market-related information in the channeled ideation process and examine how the selection of ideas in crowdsourcing challenges relates to local and global novelty. In Essay 1, “Attribute Auto-dynamics and New Product Ideation,” I introduce a replicable property – attribute auto-dynamics, observed in several novel products, where a product possesses the ability to modify its attributes automatically in response to changing customer, product-system, or environmental conditions. I propose a typology of attribute auto-dynamics, based on an analysis of U.S. utility patents. Based on this typology, I specify a procedural framework for new product ideation that integrates market-pull relevant knowledge and technology-push relevant knowledge. I also illustrate how managers and product designers can apply the framework to identify new product ideas for specific target markets using a channeled ideation approach. In Essay 2, “Selection in Crowdsourced Ideation: Role of Local and Global Novelty,” I examine how the selection of ideas in crowdsourced challenges depends on the form of novelty – local or global. Firms often turn to idea crowdsourcing challenges to obtain novel ideas. Yet prior research cautions that ideators and seeker firms may not select novel ideas. To reexamine the links between idea novelty and selection, I propose a bi-faceted notion of idea novelty that may be local or global. Examining data on OpenIDEO, I find that the selection of novel ideas differs according to the selector, the form of novelty, and the challenge task structure. I also specify a predictive model that seeker firms can leverage when ideator selection metrics such as likes are unavailable.Doctor of Philosoph

A Trust Management Framework for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

The inception of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) provides an opportunity for road users and public infrastructure to share information that improves the operation of roads and the driver experience. However, such systems can be vulnerable to malicious external entities and legitimate users. Trust management is used to address attacks from legitimate users in accordance with a user’s trust score. Trust models evaluate messages to assign rewards or punishments. This can be used to influence a driver’s future behaviour or, in extremis, block the driver. With receiver-side schemes, various methods are used to evaluate trust including, reputation computation, neighbour recommendations, and storing historical information. However, they incur overhead and add a delay when deciding whether to accept or reject messages. In this thesis, we propose a novel Tamper-Proof Device (TPD) based trust framework for managing trust of multiple drivers at the sender side vehicle that updates trust, stores, and protects information from malicious tampering. The TPD also regulates, rewards, and punishes each specific driver, as required. Furthermore, the trust score determines the classes of message that a driver can access. Dissemination of feedback is only required when there is an attack (conflicting information). A Road-Side Unit (RSU) rules on a dispute, using either the sum of products of trust and feedback or official vehicle data if available. These “untrue attacks” are resolved by an RSU using collaboration, and then providing a fixed amount of reward and punishment, as appropriate. Repeated attacks are addressed by incremental punishments and potentially driver access-blocking when conditions are met. The lack of sophistication in this fixed RSU assessment scheme is then addressed by a novel fuzzy logic-based RSU approach. This determines a fairer level of reward and punishment based on the severity of incident, driver past behaviour, and RSU confidence. The fuzzy RSU controller assesses judgements in such a way as to encourage drivers to improve their behaviour. Although any driver can lie in any situation, we believe that trustworthy drivers are more likely to remain so, and vice versa. We capture this behaviour in a Markov chain model for the sender and reporter driver behaviours where a driver’s truthfulness is influenced by their trust score and trust state. For each trust state, the driver’s likelihood of lying or honesty is set by a probability distribution which is different for each state. This framework is analysed in Veins using various classes of vehicles under different traffic conditions. Results confirm that the framework operates effectively in the presence of untrue and inconsistent attacks. The correct functioning is confirmed with the system appropriately classifying incidents when clarifier vehicles send truthful feedback. The framework is also evaluated against a centralized reputation scheme and the results demonstrate that it outperforms the reputation approach in terms of reduced communication overhead and shorter response time. Next, we perform a set of experiments to evaluate the performance of the fuzzy assessment in Veins. The fuzzy and fixed RSU assessment schemes are compared, and the results show that the fuzzy scheme provides better overall driver behaviour. The Markov chain driver behaviour model is also examined when changing the initial trust score of all drivers

Quantified vehicles: data, services, ecosystems

Advancing digitalization has shown the potential of so-called Quantified Vehicles for gathering valuable sensor data about the vehicle itself and its environment. Consequently, (vehicle) Data has become an important resource, which can pave the way to (Data-driven) Services. The (Data-driven Service) Ecosystem of actors that collaborate to ultimately generate services, has only shaped up in recent years. This cumulative dissertation summarizes the author's contributions and includes a synopsis as well as 14 peer-reviewed publications, which contribute to answer the three research questions.Die Digitalisierung hat das Potenzial für Quantified Vehicles aufgezeigt, um Sensordaten über das Fahrzeug selbst und seine Umgebung zu sammeln. Folglich sind (Fahrzeug-)Daten zu einer wichtigen Ressource der Automobilindustrie geworden, da sie auch (datengetriebene) Services ermöglichen. Es bilden sich Ökosysteme von Akteuren, die zusammenarbeiten, um letztlich Services zu generieren. Diese kumulative Dissertation fasst die Beiträge des Autors zusammen und enthält eine Synopsis sowie 14 begutachtete Veröffentlichungen, die zur Beantwortung der drei Forschungsfragen beitragen

A design framework for developing a reconfigurable driving simulator

Fahrsimulatoren werden seit Jahrzehnten erfolgreich in verschiedenen Anwendungsbe-reichen eingesetzt. Sie unterscheiden sich weitgehend in ihrer Struktur, Genauigkeit, Komplexität und in ihren Kosten. Heutzutage werden Fahrsimulatoren in der Regel in-dividuell für eine spezielle Aufgabe entwickelt und haben typischerweise eine festgeleg-te Struktur. Bei der Nutzung eines Fahrsimulators in einem Anwendungsbereich wie der Entwicklung von fortgeschrittenen Fahrerassistenzsystemen (FFAS) werden jedoch mehrere Varianten des Fahrsimulators benötigt. Es besteht daher Handlungsbedarf für die Entwicklung eines rekonfigurierbaren Fahrsimulators, der es dem Betreiber des Fahrsimulators ermöglicht, ohne umfassende Fachkenntnisse problemlos verschiedene Varianten zu erstellen. Um diese Herausforderung zu bewältigen wurde eine Entwick-lungssystematik für die Entwicklung eines rekonfigurierbaren Fahrsimulators entwi-ckelt. Die Entwicklungssystematik besteht aus einem Vorgehensmodell und einem Kon-figurationswerkzeug. Das Vorgehensmodell beschreibt die benötigten Entwicklungspha-sen, die vollständigen Aufgaben jeder Phase und die in der Entwicklung eingesetzten Methoden. Das Konfigurationswerkzeug organisiert die Lösungselemente des Fahrsimu-lators und ermöglicht dem Betreiber des Fahrsimulators, durch Auswählen einer Kombi-nation von Lösungselementen nach dem Baukastenprinzip verschiedene Varianten des Fahrsimulators zu erstellen. Die Entwicklungssystematik wird durch die Entwicklung eines rekonfigurierbaren FFAS-Fahrsimulators und durch die Erstellung von drei unter-schiedlichen Varianten dieses Fahrsimulators validiert.Driving simulators have been used successfully in various application fields for decades. They vary widely in their structure, fidelity, complexity and cost. Nowadays, driving simulators are usually custom-designed for a specific task and they typically have a fixed structure. Nevertheless, using the driving simulator in an application field, such as the development of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), requires several variants of the driving simulator. Therefore, there is a need to develop a reconfigurable driving simulator which allows its operator to easily create different variants without in-depth expertise in the system structure. In order to solve this challenge, a Design Framework for Developing a Reconfigurable Driving Simulator has been developed. The design framework consists of a procedure model and a configuration tool. The pro-cedure model describes the required development phases, the entire tasks of each phase and the used methods in the development. The configuration tool organizes the driving simulators solution elements and allows its operator to create different variants of the driving simulator by selecting a combination of the solution elements, which are like building blocks. The design framework is validated by developing an ADAS reconfigu-rable driving simulator and by creating three variants of this driving simulator.Tag der Verteidigung: 13.06.2014Paderborn, Univ., Diss., 201