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The modern passenger vehicle contains numerous sources of information. In one sense, all of the messages sent from in-vehicle devices are attractive, at least from the viewpoint of the designer who has incorporated them into the vehicle to make driving more pleasurable and safer. Yet in another sense, these same messages can present distractions to the driver resulting in diminished driving pleasure and possibly unsafe vehicle control. Thus, a message that at one moment might be attractive and useful to the driver, at a different moment, especially one where attention must be focused outside the vehicle, becomes an unwanted distraction. This paper reviews three sources of in-vehicle information: advanced traveler information systems, safety and collision avoidance systems, and convenience and entertainment systems. A framework for integrating these sub-systems is outlined based upon human-centered design principles and functional characteristics of systems.

The objective of this study is to develop a method that uses a combination of field data analysis, naturalistic driving data analysis, and computational simulations to explore the potential injury reduction capabilities of integrating passive and active safety systems in frontal impact conditions. For the purposes of this study, the active safety system is actually a driver assist (DA) feature that has the potential to reduce delta-V prior to a crash, in frontal or other crash scenarios. A field data analysis was first conducted to estimate the delta-V distribution change based on an assumption of 20% crash avoidance resulting from a pre-crash braking DA feature. Analysis of changes in driver head location during 470 hard braking events in a naturalistic driving study found that drivers’ head positions were mostly in the center position before the braking onset, while the percentage of time drivers leaning forward or backward increased significantly after the braking onset.