Can driver stress levels and abnormal vehicle operations be detected and measured to help prevent crashes? Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers and members of its multidisciplinary, multi-institution team have completed the second year of a three-year project looking at that question. So far, the answer seems to be a resounding “yes.”
The TTI project is funded by the Toyota Economic Loss Settlement — money set aside for transportation safety research. Robert Wunderlich, director of TTI’s Center for Transportation Safety, is the principal investigator and leads a research team from TTI, Texas A&M’s Dwight Look College of Engineering, the University of Houston, the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and Texas Tech University.
To detect and measure stress levels, researchers examined 59 volunteer drivers who wore a heart-rate monitor and skin conductance device and were videotaped using a thermal-imaging camera. The volunteers drove the same driver simulation course in four different scenarios — under normal conditions, while distracted with cognitively challenging questions, while distracted with emotionally charged questions, and while preoccupied with texting.
“It’s well known that high levels of stress can contribute to driver error by lowering reaction time, so alerting a stressed driver to that condition has the potential for improving safety,” says Mike Manser, manager of TTI’s Human Factors Program. “Thanks to a multidisciplinary team of dedicated researchers, we’ve made real progress in the first key step of this project. We’re all very pleased with what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
In addition to detecting and measuring driver stress levels, the team is developing sensors able to detect vehicle errors — another potential crash factor. Researchers will then develop and test potential countermeasures, which would let the driver know that either stress levels are high or something is wrong with the vehicle.
Part of the work centers around the development of a series of algorithms to determine the onset of unintended acceleration during driving. But the models could have other applications, such as detecting aggressive driving.
“We are pleased to work with TTI researchers on a meaningful and potentially high-impact project,” says Reza Langari, head of Texas A&M’s Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution Department. “The work brings together expertise in vehicle dynamics, human factors, machine learning and decision analysis to address an important problem in transportation safety — detection of abnormal driving conditions.”
The ultimate goal of the project is the development of a countermeasure that alerts the driver of abnormal conditions — either with the vehicle or the driver.
“We envision a time in the near future when these systems can be installed in a vehicle,” Manser says.
Unexpected Findings: Study Reveals Driver’s Sixth Sense, Texting Dangers
The Toyota Economic Loss Settlement Research Project has uncovered some unexpected findings — evidence of why texting can be so dangerous. Moderate levels of other driver distractions, like being upset or absent minded, trigger a sixth sense in the brain and can eventually help drivers stay safe.
Though the study’s volunteer drivers became stressed and jittery with each distraction-causing intervention, they were able to stay on course and in their lanes — except when they were texting.
“A likely explanation for this paradox is the function performed by a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex, or ACC,” says Ioannis Pavlidis, director of the University of Houston’s Computational Physiology Laboratory. “The ACC is known to automatically intervene as an error corrector, instantly counterbalancing jitters in this case.”
He explains that for the ACC to perform this corrective function, it needs support from the driver’s eye-hand coordination loop. If the loop breaks, as it does when the driver texts, then the ACC fails, resulting in a significant lane deviation.
The volunteers were monitored while driving a simulated course. The project will continue with other stress tests for drivers in an instrumented vehicle on an actual course located at the recently announced Texas A&M University RELLIS Campus.
“The driver’s mind can wander, and his or her feelings may boil, but a sixth sense keeps a person safe — at least in terms of veering off course. What makes texting so dangerous is that it wreaks havoc on this sixth sense,” Pavlidis says.
