Driver Attention Demand and Adaptive Information Management

The road system has seen a recent influx in Intelligent Road Information Systems (IRIS) in terms of Intelligent Infrastructure and Intelligent Vehicles. Although these devices are intended for the safe and efficient operation of the road system, there is increased concern that they may lead to high driver workloads and driving errors. Road safety practitioners have been striving to develop a driver interface, which could schedule information from the various devices for presentation to the driver so that driver capacity is not exceeded. This requires knowledge about the driver’s workload limit, and the level of workload from all sources. Generally, the assessment of workload has been a problem in many workload applications, mainly as a result of the multifaceted nature of the workload concept. Using a driver workload model that combines road complexity with operating speed, this research proposes a driver interface that is more in line with the way the driver adapts the driving task with speed management strategies. With knowledge about driver workload determinants, the proposed interface gives speed management instructions to the driver in order the keep workload within the driver’s limit. Vital operational and safety information no longer have to be postponed as it is normally done in interface design. The driver can be instructed to reduce speed to receive vital information from one of the sources (e.g., a cell phone) of the system. The proposal is theoretical. The process needs further experimentation and verification.