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For cars with the various modern assistance features you could probably do driver impairment detection without any interior sensors. Here are some things that m
by tzs 3y ago
For cars with the various modern assistance features you could probably do driver impairment detection without any interior sensors. Here are some things that might help detect impairment, especially if the car can identify the driver and so compare their performance on this trip with prior trips.
• Data from the lane assist system about how much the driver is drifting side to side in their lane. An impaired driver will tend to drift more.
• Data from the automatic braking system about how quickly the driver is reacting to obstacles. An impaired driver will tend to come closer to needing the automatic braking system.
• For cars that are aware of traffic lights [1], how quickly the driver starts moving again when a red changed to green. Impaired drivers will tend to take longer.
• How quickly the driver starts moving after a car in front of them that was stopped starts moving. That most likely would happen at traffic lights, so similar to the previous item, but does not require the car to know about traffic lights. It just needs to know that there is something in the way and when it leaves, which the collision avoidance system or automatic braking system can likely sense.
• How much variation there is in speed in areas where the speed limit is not changing. How well the driver adjusts their speed when the speed limit changes. How much the driver is speeding. Impaired people are probably more likely to have large variations in speed, be slow to react to changes in speed limits, and more likely to speed.
If we throw in interior behavior too climate control settings might be useful. Some kinds of impairment change subjective impressions of climate, so if a person is setting the heating or cooling to values that are inconsistent with the current weather and their past history in those conditions it could point to impairment.
[1] I remember Audi once announced a system that would watch traffic lights to figure out a good speed to try to hit all the greens, but I don't know if that caught on, or if any other car makers found reasons to include traffic light sensors.
- vel0city 3y agoImagine a world where you're considered a drunk driver because you decided you wanted the AC a little cooler and you were a little slower off the line at a stop light than some historical average. Sounds like a wonderful future.
- cge 3y agoA problem with those types of indicators is that they can often alternatively indicate an attentive driver handling situations the assistance features don't understand. A driver may seem to be drifting in lanes because the car's sense of the lanes may be wrong, or may not fit what traffic is actually doing. Large variations in speed in areas where the speed limit isn't changing could indicate difficult traffic or road conditions. Slow reactions to green lights could indicate congestion, obstructions or heavy pedestrian traffic (eg, needing to wait for late crossers at each intersection in a busy city). Climate could be an indication of the condition of passengers, especially for people who specifically drive groups because they aren't impaired when the rest of the group is.