Real-Time Distraction Countermeasures

Book chapter, 2008

In general terms, distraction can be defi ned as misallocated attention.1 In the context of driving, distraction could be induced by a range of activities such as looking after children, looking for road signs, applying makeup, and using in-vehicle information systems. Distraction may also be purely “internally” triggered, for example when daydreaming. A large body of empirical research links driver distraction to degraded driving performance, for example, reduced lateral control, reduced event and object detection performance, and impaired decision making (see, e.g., Young et al.2 for a review). Distraction has also repeatedly been identifi ed as a major contributing factor in crashes, 3-5 although direct causal links between distraction-induced performance degradation and actual crash risk have been diffi cult to establish empirically. This is due mainly to the methodological diffi culties associated with collecting suffi ciently detailed precrash data. However, recent results from naturalistic fi eld studies, such as the 100-car study, 6, 7 have contributed to bridging this gap (see Chapters 16 and 17), by demonstrating signifi cant increases in (relative) risk resulting from driver engagement in a variety of distracting activities.