European drivers spend 10% of their driving time on secondary tasks, and 4% of hand-held mobile phone usage, such as typing or calling. There is an increase in phone usage when the vehicle is idle or driving slow. Truck drivers are distracted for even longer periods of time: the data shows they spend nearly 20% of driving time distracted, mostly on food and telephones. Nearly 3% of driving time is spent on the visual-manual use of the mobile phone, such as reading and writing text messages.
More results from the 3 year naturalistic driving project have been presented at the UDRIVE final event – the UDRIVE Experience – which took place on 7 June 2017 in the Hague, the Netherlands. Around 100 participants attended the final event and participated in the interesting rotating sessions covering different naturalistic driving topics such as risky driving, distraction, cyclists and pedestrians, eco-driving, motorists and trucks. Two UDRIVE equipped vehicles – a motorcycle and a car – showed the participants the UDRIVE Data Acquisition System (DAS) and how is it intergrated in the vehicles.
UDRIVE Data Collection
The data was collected during the European research project UDRIVE. In 6 different European countries, lorries, passenger cars and motorcycles were equipped with measuring equipment and cameras. The vehicles and their drivers have been “followed” for 2 years in daily use.
Efficient driving
The UDRIVE research also looked at the different driving styles. This showed that the so-called ‘ecodriving’ within the built-up can lead to 25% less fuel consumption and emissions.
Database
The UDRIVE project has provided a comprehensive database of data about everyday rides and how drivers behave during those rides. In total, nearly 90,000 hours of driving data were collected from almost 300 drivers. The vehicle includes, among others, cameras outside and inside, and a smart camera that recognizes and locates other road users, and, for example, calculates the distance to a driver or a cyclist approaching.
“This is the big difference with an experimental environment, or a rhythm simulator research,” says UDRIVE project coordinator Nicole van Nes. “After a week, the majority of participants in the research have lost the idea of being filming, and one can see the ‘natural driving behavior. Therefore this method is also called naturalistic driving. With this method, we get a better picture of actual behavior in daily traffic than with questionnaires or driving simulator research. “
UDRIVE final results and highlights will be published soon on www.udrive.eu. Keep an eye on the website in the upcoming weeks.
