UDRIVE involves the monitoring of cars, trucks and scooters for up to 21 months as part of naturalistic data collection whenever the vehicle is in motion; in daylight, darkness and all weather conditions.
Volunteers from six countries – the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Poland – have agreed to cameras and data recorders being fitted to their vehicles and scooters for continuous footage and data collection.
Loughborough University’s Driver Behaviour and Injury Prevention Research Group is leading on the UK data gathering along with the Institute of Transport Studies at the University of Leeds, by equipping 30 cars with seven video cameras and a smart camera to cover both the external view of the vehicle and the internal view, including the driver’s face, hands, and feet.
The aim is to gain an accurate and in-depth understanding of actual road user behaviour in a natural setting and analyse the inter-relationship between driver/rider, vehicle, road and other traffic in a range of situations. The study will assess the risk of safety critical behaviour and eco driving. The insights gained will be used to identify new measures to make the European traffic system safer and more sustainable.
It is hoped this new approach will help meet targets to reduce vehicle emission levels and the number of crashes on our roads, set under Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
View the video here.
Photo source: Loughborough University
