A review of automotive human machine interface technologies and techniques to reduce driver distraction

Road traffic injuries are a major public health concern, these injuries place a heavy financial burden on global and national economies and the social cost of human suffering worldwide due to road crashes and injuries is incalculable. In response to this increasing problem, a number of governmental initiatives and working groups have been announced and many countries have published targets for reductions in road fatalities and injuries. The issue of driver distraction has received increasing attention from the media, public, government, industry and safety organisations. Initially much of the concern focussed on the use of mobile phones. This paper gives a brief description of the different types of driver distraction and how they relate to the driving task, standards and methods for measuring driver distraction are also discussed. The main focus of this paper is to review possible future automotive human machine interface (HMI) technologies and design techniques that may offer road safety benefits by reducing driver distraction when operating in-vehicle secondary controls.