Trends in Electrodermal Activity, Heart Rate and Temperature during Distracted Driving among Young Novice Drivers.

Driver distraction, defined as the scattering of attention from critical activities for safe driving, is among the key globally recognized contributing factors to road crashes. The trend keeps increasing with in-vehicle information systems and hand-held devices, leading to inattention. Of people in all age groups, young novice teenagers are prone to the risk of road crashes and are also more likely to exhibit risky and unsafe driving behavior. Data shows that the involvement of distracted drivers in fatal & injury collisions is higher for people aged between 16 -34, which is about 55%. Therefore, young drivers are of great concern for the research about driving and evaluation of safe driving conditions, which is vital in upcoming advancements in autonomous vehicles. Several research studies have explored the effects of distracted driving using face tracking and eye glance monitoring. Previous research [50] did not consider much about the effect of distraction on physiological factors and their impact during driving. The current study used data collected from a previous thesis work titled “Detection of Driver Cognitive Distraction Using Machine Learning Methods” by Apurva Misra and conducted new data analysis focusing on new research questions. The main objective of this thesis is to study, identify and discuss the effects on physiological factors like heart rate (HR), electrodermal activity (EDA), body temperature, and motion sickness during distracted driving among young drivers. The data was collected from a driving simulator study comprising 42 participants aged 16 – 23 under normal and distracted driving conditions. Their driving experience ranges from 0 to a maximum of 5 years. Each participant navigated six scenarios, three with distraction and the rest without distraction. Each scenario has a hidden, latent hazard depending on the surrounding; for example, in the work zone scenario, a worker is hidden behind the bulldozer in the work zone. The distraction task is a spoken task for which the driver has to respond verbally, which exerts a workload similar to that observed in conversations using a hands-free mobile phone. The physiological data collected through the Empatica4 wristband was analyzed and compared against age, gender, driver experience, and another parameter like motion sickness score (MSS) obtained from a questionnaire the participants completed after the experiment. Of the physiological factors stated above, it was found that HR and EDA play a significant role while studying distraction. Data analysis showed that HR and EDA increase more during distraction than baseline events. Nearly 80% of drivers with 0 or 1 year of experience tend to have a higher range of HR and EDA, which reveals that they are more distracted than their peers with more experience. From the results of the Load index questionnaire and Motion Sickness susceptibility questionnaire, it is inferred that when MSS increases, there is an increase in HR and EDA. These findings will provide insights into physiological factors for developing distraction mitigation systems or in-vehicle warning systems for distracted drivers

Physiological-based Driver Monitoring Systems: A Scoping Review

A physiological-based driver monitoring system (DMS) has attracted research interest and has great potential for providing more accurate and reliable monitoring of the driver’s state during a driving experience. Many driving monitoring systems are driver behavior-based or vehicle-based. When these non-physiological based DMS are coupled with physiological-based data analysis from electroencephalography (EEG), electrooculography (EOG), electrocardiography (ECG), and electromyography (EMG), the physical and emotional state of the driver may also be assessed. Drivers’ wellness can also be monitored, and hence, traffic collisions can be avoided. This paper highlights work that has been published in the past five years related to physiological-based DMS. Specifically, we focused on the physiological indicators applied in DMS design and development. Work utilizing key physiological indicators related to driver identification, driver alertness, driver drowsiness, driver fatigue, and drunk driver is identified and described based on the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-Sc) Framework. The relationship between selected papers is visualized using keyword co-occurrence. Findings were presented using a narrative review approach based on classifications of DMS. Finally, the challenges of physiological-based DMS are highlighted in the conclusion. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-12-020 Full Text: PD

The influence of personal navigation devices on drivers\u27 visual attention on the road ahead and driving performance

Nowadays, personal navigation devices (PNDs) that provide GPS-based directions are widespread in vehicles. These devices typically display the real-time location of the vehicle on a map and play spoken prompts when drivers need to turn. While such devices are less distracting than paper directions, their graphical display may distract users from their primary task of driving. This thesis investigates the influence of two PNDs on driving performance and visual attention. In the experiments conducted with a high fidelity driving simulator, we found that drivers using a navigation system with a graphical display indeed spent less time looking at the road compared to those using a navigation system with spoken directions only. Furthermore, glancing at the display was correlated with higher variance in driving performance measures. We discuss the implications of these findings on PND design for vehicles

Towards hybrid driver state monitoring : review, future perspectives and the role of consumer electronics

The purpose of this paper is to bring together multiple literature sources which present innovative methodologies for the assessment of driver state, driving context and performance by means of technology within a vehicle and consumer electronic devices. It also provides an overview of ongoing research and trends in the area of driver state monitoring. As part of this review a model of a hybrid driver state monitoring system is proposed. The model incorporates technology within a vehicle and multiple broughtin devices for enhanced validity and reliability of recorded data. Additionally, the model draws upon requirement of data fusion in order to generate unified driver state indicator(-s) that could be used to modify in-vehicle information and safety systems hence, make them driver state adaptable. Such modification could help to reach optimal driving performance in a particular driving situation. To conclude, we discuss the advantages of integrating hybrid driver state monitoring system into a vehicle and suggest future areas of research

Effects of different push-to-talk solutions on driving performance

Police officers have been using the Project54 system in their vehicles for a number of years. They have also started using the handheld version of Project54 outside their vehicles recently. There is a need to connect these two instances of the system into a continuous user interface. On the other hand, research has shown that the PTT button location affects driving performance. This thesis investigates the difference between the old, fixed PTT button and a new wireless PTT glove, that could be used in and outside of the car. The thesis describes the design of the glove and the driving simulator experiment that was conducted to investigate the glove\u27s merit. The main results show that the glove allows more freedom of operation, appears to be easier and more efficient to operate and it reduces the visual distraction of the drivers

Mobile Application to support fuel-efficient driving through situation awareness

Abstract. Situation awareness is usually conceptualized as design and implementation principles for safety critical industries like aviation or military. Finland was one of the first countries in the world to establish an intelligent transport systems (ITS) strategy in 2009. Increasing the situation awareness in traffic is regarded as one of the means to implement the strategy. In the theoretical part of this thesis, we explore the use of situation awareness and context awareness in intelligent transport systems. Particularly, the thesis focuses on summarizing proper design and evaluation principles to provide situation awareness support for fuel efficient driving. These guidelines were exploited in implementing a mobile application, called Driving Coach Mobile Application in the practical part of the thesis. The purpose of the application is to provide awareness to the drivers about how they can save fuel. Driving Coach Mobile Application’s accordance of design and implementation principles to situation awareness support is validated by user study with simulated data focused on usability, usefulness and fuel efficiency awareness support. The results of this thesis can be used in fleet management planning, city planning as well as in personal driving, for example.Tilannetietoinen mobiilisovellus polttoainetaloudellisen ajamisen tueksi. Tiivistelmä. Turvallisuuskriittisissä teollisuuden osa-alueissa kuten ilmailussa tai sotilaallisessa toiminnassa, eri toimijoiden tilannetietoisuuden parantamiseen tähtäävät suunnittelu- sekä toteutusperiaatteet ovat olleet merkittävässä roolissa jo pitkään. Suomi oli maailman ensimmäisiä maita, jotka julkistivat älykkään liikenteen strategian jo vuonna 2009. Tilannetietoisuuden parantaminen liikenteessä on edelleen eräs tämän strategian toimeenpanomuoto. Tämän työn teoreettisessa osassa tutkitaan avulla tilannetietoisuuden sekä toimintatilanteesta tietoisuuden soveltamista älyliikenteessä. Erityisesti tarkastellaan suunnittelu- sekä evaluointiperiaatteita polttoainetalouden tehokkuuden lisäämiselle tilannetietoisuuden avulla. Työn käytännön osuudessa sovellettiin näitä periaatteita mobiilisovelluksen toteuttamiseksi. Mobiilisovellus tukee kuljettajien polttoainetehokkaampaa ajamista. Sovellus testattiin käytettävyyden, hyödyllisyyden sekä polttoainetehokkaan ajamisen tuen suhteen. Sovellusta voidaan käyttää esimerkiksi kaupunkisuunnittelussa, autokannan toiminnan tarkkailemisessa tai vaikka henkilökohtaisen ajotavan arvioinnissa

Policy interventions for safer, healthier people and communities

This report examines the effects of transportation policies on public health in three key areas, environment and environmental public health, community design and active transportation, and motor vehicle-related injuries and fatalities.Authored by a team of individuals headed by David R. Ragland, PhD, MPH Director of the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) at UC Berkeley and Phyllis Orrick, BA, SafeTREC Communications Director. -- p. iThis publication was made possible by cooperative agreement 3U58HM000216-05W1 between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Partnership for Prevention and through contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton and the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) at UC Berkeley.1. Policies that improve the environment and environmental public health -- 2. Policies that enhance community design and promote active transportation -- 3. Policies that reduce motor vehicle-related injuries and fatalities.2011Other689

Understanding Willingness to Respond to Messages and its Relationship to Driving Performance

Research has demonstrated that distracted driving degrades performance. Factors influencing the decision to drive distracted were investigated. In experiment one, participants completed a discounting task where they chose between a smaller reward immediately or a delayed larger reward paired with the opportunity to text. Participants indicated willingness to wait to respond to a text in four scenes: two weather conditions and two modalities of the message. Willingness to wait to respond was related to modality but not weather. Individuals were placed into groups based on responses and differed in waiting preferences in all scenes. In experiment two, the discounting task was used and participants completed six drives consisting of three secondary tasks in two traffic levels. Participants completed the DRT measure of workload and rated driving performance. Drivers differed in driving performance and rating of driving performance for the tasks. These results have implications understanding the decision to drive distracted

The joint effect of weather and lighting conditions on injury severities of single-vehicle accidents

This study seeks to identify and analyze variations in the effect of contributing factors on injury severities of single-vehicle accidents across various lighting and weather conditions. To that end, injury-severity data from single-vehicle, injury accidents occurred in Scotland, United Kingdom in 2016 and 2017 are statistically modeled. Upon the conduct of likelihood ratio tests, separate models of accident injury severities are estimated for various combinations of weather and lighting conditions taking also into account the presence and operation of roadside lighting infrastructure. To account for the possibility of unobserved regimes underpinning the injury-severity mechanism, the zero-inflated hierarchical ordered probit approach with correlated disturbances is employed. The approach also relaxes the fixed threshold restriction of the traditional ordered probability models and captures systematic unobserved variations between the underlying regimes. The model estimation results show that a wide range of accident, vehicle, driver, trip and location characteristics have varying impacts on injury severities when different weather and lighting conditions are jointly considered. Even though several factors are identified to have overall consistent effects on injury severities, the simultaneous impact of unfavorable weather and lighting conditions is found to introduce significant variations, especially in the effect of vehicle- and driver-specific characteristics. The findings of this study can be leveraged in vehicle-to-infrastructure or in-vehicle communication technologies that can assist drivers in their responses against hazardous environmental conditions