Deadlines for driver monitoring systems are approaching fast

Written By Benoit Conotte

Automakers need to act fast if they are not yet prepared for forthcoming changes in legislation and consumer-group car safety ratings. The European Commission mandates driver monitoring from 2022 for all new type approvals.  Vehicle systems need to detect signs of drowsiness and issue warnings to the driver.

Euro NCAP already begins attributing points for Driver State Monitoring (DSM) this year.  DSM will earn even more points in safety scores as of 2023.

North-America and China are following the lead.

According to the World Health Organisation, over 1.3 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes.  NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) informs that

94% of serious crashes are due to human error”. 

The weak link in driving is the driver. As a result, legislative and consumer bodies have been increasing their focus on driver state monitoring with automakers being mandated to act. 

EC legislation as of 2022

EC legislation will be introduced as of 2022 for all new type approvals and 2024 for all new vehicles.  Legislation will cover 3 main areas for driver monitoring:

  1. Driver drowsiness and attention warning - A system that assesses the driver’s alertness through vehicle systems analysis and warns the driver if needed. This will be applied to new type approvals from 2022 and all new vehicles from 2024.

  2. Advanced driver distraction warning - A system that helps the driver to continue to pay attention to the traffic situation and that warns the driver when he or she is distracted. This will be applied to new type approvals from 2024 and all new vehicles from 2026.

  3. Driver availability monitoring system - A system to assess whether the driver is in a position to take over the driving function from an automated vehicle in particular situations, where appropriate. This will be applied to new type approvals for autonomous vehicles from 2022 and all new autonomous vehicles from 2024.

Euro NCAP as of 2020

In their 2025 Roadmap – In Pursuit of Vision Zero – EuroNCAP outline their vision of how advanced safety systems will protect road users:

For primary safety, driver monitoring (start date 2020) is proposed, to mitigate the very significant problems of driver distraction and impairment through alcohol, fatigue, etc. A reward is foreseen which is related both to the problems detected by the system and to the action taken.

A basic form of driver monitoring will be included in the assessment from 2020 with driver state detection/intervention being introduced in 2022. They will assess how reliably and accurately systems can detect impaired and distracted driving, give appropriate warnings and take effective actions.

USA “Moving Forward Act”

In July 2020, the House of Representatives passed its $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill, the “Moving Forward Act”. The so-called “21st Century Smart Cars act” mandates the Dept. of Transport to conduct research into driver monitoring systems that shall be integrated into their crash avoidance rating within a specified time-frame.

(A) Driver monitoring systems that will minimize driver disengagement, prevent automation complacency, and account for foreseeable misuse of the automation...

(B) After completion of the research required under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall include each of the safety systems in the crash avoidance rating not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this section...

China has legislated the mandatory installation of DMS for commercial vehicles, and similar obligations for passenger cars are reported to be just around the corner.

In this way, automakers are being obliged to take responsibility for detecting and interpreting driver behavior, as well as installing efficient human-to-machine communication and safety countermeasures.

Such mandated adoption of Driver Monitoring systems will improve safety by reducing the 94% of serious and fatal crashes that are caused by human error.

Sources:

Benoit Conotte
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