New thesis shows the danger of inattentive drivers

Research has long been carried out at Volvo into how drivers are affected by inattentiveness and systems are being developed which actively make drivers keep their eyes on the road. Now, a thesis on this subject has been prepared by Trent Victor, project manager at Volvo Technology and a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden.

Around 45,000 people die every year in accidents on European roads and a minority of the accidents involves heavy goods transport. A major new American study shows that inattentiveness is a much greater cause of accidents than had previously been thought; approximately 80% of collisions could be explained by the driver taking his eyes off the road just before the incident.

Volvo invests major resources in developing aids to keep the driver concentrated on the traffic, and the trucks of the future will be equipped with advanced functions for signalling driver inattentiveness. Trent Victor, project manager at Volvo Technology and a researcher at Uppsala University, has developed a system to deal with the problem of drivers looking away at the wrong moment.

With the help of an eye camera, sensors in the steering wheel and a camera in the windscreen, the driver’s eye movements and head movements, jerky movements of the steering wheel and the vehicles’ lane position can be studied. If the driver’s attention is directed too long or too often at something other than the road, or if he is prioritising incorrectly, he is given a warning. The eye camera contains the function Distraction Alert which consists of a number of LEDs on the instrument panel which create a “running” luminous flux. The flux provokes a reflex in the driver that pulls his gaze back to the road ahead.

“A tired and inattentive driver is just as dangerous as a driver who is under the influence of drink or drugs in traffic. If, with the help of different aids in trucks, we can prevent accidents on the roads then we can save human lives,” says Trent Victor.

Trent Victor is defending his thesis at Uppsala University today. His research is an industrial doctorate project at Volvo Technology linked to the university.