Assisting Driver Sovereignty: A Fail-Safe Design Approach to Driver Distraction

This thesis investigates the potential of a fail-safe approach to driver distraction through novel interface concepts for integrated Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Traffic accidents are a negative side effect of the universal and economical desire for mobility. The year 2009 saw the alarming numbers of 34.817 fatalities and 1.565.151 injured resulting from in total 1.190.448 recorded accidents in the 27 European Union member states alone. The automotive industry is making efforts to reduce distraction involving in-vehicle information sources by committing themselves to standards of principles, criteria and validation methods for system and interface design. Although these efforts may help reduce distraction, they do not prevent it. Extensive studies have proven that driver distraction and inattention play a decisive role in between 40% and 78% of critical events and vehicle crashes. And, as more wireless communication and entertainment systems proliferate the vehicle market, the problem may escalate. In this thesis, the core problem cause is sought in the complexity of the situation monitoring tasks and the limitations in human information perception and processing. A better fit between the monitoring requirements and the human capabilities and limitations seems much desired. ADAS concept approaches were developed for integrated ADAS interfacing (4 patent grants) and for presentation in a Head-up Display. These are designed to induce anticipative driving behavior for the purpose of enhancing driver sovereignty. In a series of driving simulator exploration tests, the pragmatic, hedonic and attractiveness qualities were assessed by subjective evaluation. Concept design properties were iteratively updated before starting validation measurements against a state of the art interface. The effect on driving performance, situation awareness, mental effort, monitoring behavior and driver perception performance was measured. The results show proven potential in the subjectively assessed acceptance, as well as the measured functional performance with the chosen approach. Although results have to be interpreted with care, this novice driver assistance approach seems to represent an a promising alternative approach to encountering the distraction phenomenon, complementary to tendencies in system automation and legislative enforcement of safer driving.Human Information Communication DesignIndustrial Design Engineerin