Study On Driver Behavior During Eyes Off Road

A large number of studies have shown that driver’s fault is the main cause of trafficaccidents. According to related statistics,13~50%of the accidents are caused by driverdistraction. Therefore, studying driver distraction is necessary, reducing the occurrence ofdistraction is of great significance to improve traffic safety.Review on driver distraction and research methods at home and abroad, analyze thedistraction, summarize the cause of distraction, mechanism of distraction and evaluation ofdistraction.Driver distraction is divided into visual distraction and cognitive distraction. In thispaper, based on the methods of visual distraction, analyze driver behavior during eyes offroad.Based on visual distraction, propose the method of dividing fixation area fitting thispaper, define the process of eyes looking away from the road ahead, analyze the drivervisual behavior and the operational behavior on the vehicle during eyes off road.The driver visual data shows that, when the driver looks away from road, the driverconcerns the interior region of the car most frequently; The average time of eyes off theroad is about0.62s,95th percentile is1.1seconds; The time is related with driver’s style.The driver vehicle operation data shows that, when the driver looks away from road,the manipulation of the steering wheel appears to be rigid; The drivers have the trend ofreleasing the accelerator pedal when the time of eyes off road more than one second; As thetime of eyes off road increases, driver’s lane keeping ability decreases.The research is sponsored by National Key Technology R&D Program(2009BAG13A05).