Falling asleep at the wheel can have disastrous consequences, but technology is helping to prevent it happening. Chris Randall looks at ‘Driver Alert’ systems.
DRIVING TOWARDS 2035
The design of today’s cars, and the technology they contain, has ensured big strides have been made when it comes to safety, and yet the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads remains stubbornly high. So the focus continues on making cars ever-safer, which is where the EU’s General Safety Regulation (GSR) comes in. If you’ve not heard of it you’ll almost certainly be aware of the car safety features that it has mandated, generally grouped together as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, or ADAS.
Not all such systems are favoured by drivers, the likes of Lane Departure Warning causing plenty of annoyance as it tries to wrestle control of the steering wheel. But there’s no doubt that many of them do contribute to safer driving, and the system we’re taking a closer look at here relates to driver monitoring. There are many factors that contribute to road accidents, but one of them is fatigue and driving whilst tired is certainly not to be recommended. You’ll almost certainly have seen the motorway signs advising you to take a break, but current technology is taking a rather more proactive approach to the problem.
Returning to the General Safety Regulation, Phase 2 came into force in July 2022 and mandated a variety of features, from intelligent speed assistance to the driver drowsiness systems we’re exploring here. And from July 2024 the use of ‘advance driver distraction warning’ will have an even greater focus, not just because it will be more sophisticated by requiring the use of infrared cameras within the vehicle to monitor face and eye movements, but also because it will need to feature on all new vehicles made and not just new models that are launched. So it will mean modifying existing models to accept the technology and that may not be straightforward; indeed, it may see some models disappear from a manufacturer’s range as the cost of such modification proves too great.
It will remain to be seen what effect it has from that perspective, but for now let’s take that look at the systems employed to see if us, the drivers, are staying alert. One such has been made by Bosch and uses the steering angle sensor to detect driver inputs – so the type and frequency of inputs, looking to identify anything it thinks is erratic. By building up a pattern of previous steering inputs and comparing them to the driver’s current actions at the wheel the syst
