GM 2020-09-1718 Sep 2020 08:56
CONFIGURATION OF IN-VEHICLE ENTERTAINMENT BASED ON DRIVER ATTENTION
A system and method for carrying out a remedial action based on monitoring driver attention of a vehicle driver. The method includes: obtaining driver attention sensor data from one or more driver attention sensors that are installed on the vehicle as onboard vehicle sensors; detecting a driver inattention event based on the obtained driver attention sensor data; determining one or more driver inattention metrics based on the obtained driver attention sensor data and in response to the detected driver inattention event; based on at least one of the driver inattention metrics, determining one or more remedial actions to be carried out; and carrying out the one or more remedial actions, wherein, when at least one of the one or more remedial actions is carried out, in-vehicle entertainment that is provided by one or more vehicle-user interfaces of the vehicle is restricted or prevented.
The system and method described below enables a remedial action to be carried out in response to detecting that a driver of a vehicle is inattentive with respect to driving the vehicle. According to various embodiments, the system and method described herein can be used to monitor a driver of a vehicle using one or more driver attention sensors, and to then carry out one or more remedial actions based on driver attention sensor data. The one or more remedial actions can include restricting or preventing one or more in-vehicle entertainment functions of the vehicle (e.g., radio functionality, other infotainment applications). Also, in some embodiments, the count and/or length of the one or more driver inattention events can be used to determine remedial action(s) that are to be carried out. In general, a driver inattention event is an event in which a driver of a vehicle is determined to not be providing suitable attention to driving the vehicle. The driver inattention event(s) are determined based on driver attention sensor(s), which can include an eye-tracking sensor (as implemented by a driver-facing camera, for example), a steering wheel touch sensor, and/or a steering wheel torque sensor. In one embodiment, an external object calculation module (EOCM) that carries out autonomous vehicle (AV) functionality can be used to perform the monitoring step of one or more embodiments of the method.
In one exemplary scenario, the system and method can improve vehicle safety by incentivizing the vehicle driver to pay attention to driving the vehicle. The incentives can be provided in the form of inhibiting or otherwise restricting certain in-vehicle entertainment. Moreover, at least according to some embodiments, the level or degree of the remedial actions (e.g., the inhibiting of in-vehicle entertainment) can be determined based on a level of driver inattention.
https://tinyurl.com/yxmwqq9l
https://patents.justia.com/patent/20200290630
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20200290630.pdf
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