Colin LinkedIn29 Aug 2024 13:53
Driver monitoring systems #DMS are now a mandated #safety #technology in Europe, required by the General Safety Regulation #GSR for compliance with #distraction and #drowsiness monitoring. Further Euro NCAP - For Safer Cars, Vans & Trucks began testing for driver state monitoring #DSM in January 2023. Evidence from vehicle reviews shows some #OEMs have taken the lowest cost option in procuring their DMS. Ticking the "cheap" DMS box also ticks the "infuriating" DMS box, with #software which beeps, chimes and dings incessantly at drivers, leaving them exasperated. This is a great way to destroy customer brand loyalty with minimal cost and effort.
The problem isn't with drowsiness detection. Simply put, if the driver has their eyes closed for a prolonged period, that is not a safe situation. There are well established metrics for measuring drowsiness, using #KSS and #PERCLOS, so that side of DMS is well understood.
The problems present themselves in distraction #algorithms that don't understand human behavior. There are many reasons why a driver may turn their head when driving, some of which indicate distraction and some of which don't. We didn't see this issue in early L2/L2+ systems because of the ODD, but we are now because regulation requires DMS to be active all the time.
Distinguishing between driving-related tasks and non-driving-related tasks is critical to the development of effective distraction algorithms used for real-world driving. A DMS developer that ignores research into human behavior will develop software which nags the driver about distracted driving even while they undertake necessary tasks such as checking mirrors, blind spots and speed. This is why "cheap" and "infuriating" increasingly go together in DMS procurement. The software can't understand human behavior.
Anyone that does not fully understand the complex challenges of successfully mitigating distracted driving, and the roles of "owl" and "lizard" movement detection, or the implications of the long-glance-away #LGA and attention splitting #VATS are advised to download and read the linked research entitled: "European NCAP Driver State Monitoring Protocols: Prevalence of Distraction in Naturalistic Driving."
The key conclusion from the research reads: "Euro NCAP-described driver distraction occurs naturalistically. Lizard glances, requiring gaze tracking, occurred in high frequency relative to owl glances, which only require head tracking, indicating that less sophisticated DSM will miss a substantial amount of distraction events."
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