Driver Alerting in ADAS-Equipped Cars: A Field Study

Driver distraction is a serious problem that directly contributes to rising deaths on US roadways, and is increasingly an issue in cars equipped with Advanced Driving Assist Systems (ADAS) that perform lateral and longitudinal control. To determine how driver alerting systems for two models of ADAS-equipped vehicles compared in a highway setting, a field experiment was conducted that measured the frequency of hands-on-the-wheel alerts, as well as how these alerts may be affected by low sun angles, which can cause camera washout and instabilities in lane tracking. Results show at least one model appears to increase alerting when in sun glare scenarios, but inconsistencies exist across cars of the same model. In addition, car models can vary widely and sometimes dangerously in driver alerting when hands are not detected on the steering wheel, and that dual coding through both audio and visual channels for such alerts is very inadequate.