Estimation of Driver's Danger Level when Accessing the Center Console for Safe Driving

Area of Science:

• Automotive Safety
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Driver Behavior Analysis

Background:

• Driver distraction is a major cause of road accidents.
• Interactions with vehicle center consoles contribute significantly to cognitive and visual distraction.
• Existing methods for assessing distraction risk are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a system for quantifying driver danger levels during center console interaction.
• To establish a real-time risk assessment metric based on driver hand movements.
• To improve in-vehicle safety by identifying high-risk interaction patterns.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a driver monitoring platform with three infrared sensors on the center console (temperature, wind direction, wind intensity controls).
• Measured driver hand movement distance and time to access specific console controls.
• Employed linear regression analysis to correlate movement data with estimated danger levels.

Main Results:

• The proposed system demonstrated accurate estimation of driver danger levels.
• Driver H achieved the best estimation with a root mean square error of 0.0043.
• The system effectively quantifies risk based on hand movement dynamics.

Conclusions:

• The developed system provides a reliable method for assessing driver distraction risk associated with center console use.
• This technology can contribute to proactive driver safety systems and reduced accident rates.
• Further research can refine the danger estimation model for diverse driving scenarios.