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Towards a Real-Time Driver Workload Estimator: An On-the-Road Study

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Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation

Abstract

Driver distraction is a leading cause of crashes. The introduction of in-vehicle technology in the last decades has added support to the driving task. However, in-vehicle technologies and handheld electronic devices may also be a threat to driver safety due to information overload and distraction. Adaptive in-vehicle information systems may be a solution to this problem. Adaptive systems could aid the driver in obtaining information from the device (by reducing information density) or prevent distraction by not presenting or delaying information when the driver’s workload is high. In this paper, we describe an on-the-road evaluation of a real-time driver workload estimator that makes use of geo-specific information. The results demonstrate the relative validity of our experimental methods and show the potential for using location-based adaptive in-vehicle systems.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Menno Merts (vehicle and test equipment preparation), Arjan Stuiver, Dick Lenior (test set up/development), and Henny Wilke (test leader) for their support in the research project. The research was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science through the RAAK-PRO project: “ADVICE: Advanced Driver Vehicle Interface in a Complex Environment”. RAAK-PRO focusses on the enhancement of applied scientific research by Universities of Applied Sciences, in cooperation with the industry.

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van Leeuwen, P. et al. (2017). Towards a Real-Time Driver Workload Estimator: An On-the-Road Study. In: Stanton, N., Landry, S., Di Bucchianico, G., Vallicelli, A. (eds) Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 484. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41682-3_94

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41682-3_94

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