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2011 - 56th L. Ray Buckendale Lecture Driver distraction has become an important topic in society and the research community. A telltale sign of how driver distraction has impacted society is evidenced by the designation of the term "distracted driving" as Webster's New World® College Dictionary 2009 Word of the Year. Since the release of a key study directed at commercial vehicle drivers, there have been two U.S. Department of Transportation summits to address the topic, in addition to legislation banning texting-while-driving in commercial motor vehicles. Given that "driver distraction" is a construct without a consensus definition, many studies on driver distraction have focused on its fundamental and theoretical underpinning, which is a critical first step in understanding the phenomenon.

To address the issue of fatigued truck drivers, the U.S. Department of Transportation sponsored research to develop a Drowsy Driver Warning System. This system has been under development for several years and is at a point where it is ready for a Field Operational Test. The experimental plan calls for 102 drivers, each operating one of 34 instrumented heavy trucks for 16 weeks. Each vehicle is instrumented with video cameras and a variety of sensors to capture driver input/performance. This paper describes the method being used to conduct the study, including an overview of the data collection instrumentation.

This study evaluated the performance of a new approach for detecting problems with commercial vehicle brakes based on the analysis of sounds emitted during braking. Commercial vehicle brakes emit ultrasonic energy inaudible to humans as part of the friction process, and the spectral distribution of these sounds is highly dependent on the mechanical condition of the brakes. Data collected from a commercial vehicle fleet found that the acoustic signature changes as friction linings wear. This conforms with the acoustic theory that the resonant frequency of an object increases with its decrease in mass. The use of this information to inform maintenance operations is promising in that the scheduling of visual brake inspections could be based on acoustic wear patterns rather than arbitrary time intervals and the observation of anomalous signals that might indicate more immediate concerns.