Relevant Upcoming European

Regulations and Ratings for

Detection of Driver State
Impairment: Pillar 2

Peter Moertl (Virtual Vehicle Research

Center, Graz, Austria)
 Upcoming Changes for new Vehicles that Impact
Driver Impairment Detection

EU Regulation 2019/2144
„General Safety
• EU has adopted regulations for new vehicles Regulation“ (GSR)
to be equipped with safety increasing on-
board systems
• EuroNCAP new vehicle testing protocols Supplemting EU
include relevant features Regulation 2019/1342
• Relevant for the detection of driver „Driver Drowsiness and
Attention Warning“
impairment (DDAW)
• While not specifically targeted for commercial
drivers
• Have an impact
EURONCAP Assessment
• What are the most relevant implications for Protocol Safety Assist Safe
our projects? Driving (Implementation
2023)
 EU General Safety Regulation

Since July 2022, the EU General Safety Regulation

(GSR) is in place that foresees a series of safety
enhancing features in
• New passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses
In terms of driver impairment detection, following
features are most relevant
• Alcohol interlock installation facilitation
• Driver drowsiness and attention warnings
• Driver availability monitoring system
• Required for automated vehicles (SAE L3)

https://etsc.eu/issues/drink-driving/alcohol-interlock-barometer/ EU GSR fact sheet

 Driver Drowsiness and Attention Warnings

In 2021, EU specified test procedures & technical requirements for type-

approval of motor vehicles concerning driver drowsiness and attention
warnings (DDAW)
• Acoustic and visual warning to the driver at a level of drowsiness
which is equivalent to or above 8 on the reference sleepiness
scale set out in the Appendix (Karolinska Sleepiness Scale)
• May provide a warning to the driver at a level of drowsiness which
is equivalent to level 7 on KSS.
• No specification how to measure drowsiness, possible alternatives
are:
• Variability of lateral lane position
• Micro-corrections of steering wheel
• Position to lateral lane markings
• Shall not use biometric information (face-recognition)
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
• Shall retain data only necessary for system to function content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021R1341
&from=EN
 DDAW Acceptance Criteria and Human Acceptance

TP: True Positives

Average sensitivity must be above 40 % FN: False Negatives (nuisance alerts)
FP: False Positives
TN: True Negatives
𝒏(𝑻𝑷)
𝑺𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒚 = × 𝟏𝟎𝟎 %
𝒏 𝑻𝑷 + 𝒏(𝑭𝑵)

• According to the defined acceptance, a system 𝑺𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 =

𝒏(𝑻𝑵)
× 𝟏𝟎𝟎 %
that detects 100 times correctly but with 100 𝒏 𝑻𝑵 + 𝒏(𝑭𝑵)
nuisance alerts, would pass
• Driver acceptance ?
• For a driver acceptable systems, additional
𝑨𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚 =
𝒏 𝑻𝑷 + 𝒏 𝑻𝑵
× 𝟏𝟎𝟎 %
metrics would also be important 𝒏 𝑻𝑷 + 𝒏(𝑻𝑵) + 𝒏(𝑭𝑷) + 𝒏(𝑭𝑵)
 EuroNCAP: Ratings for new passenger vehicle

To get points in the EuroNCAP (for 2023), vehicle features required to get points
awarded
- Seat belt reminder: SBR
- Driver state monitoring (DSM)
- Speed Assistance system (SAS)
- Autonomous emergency braking system (AES)
Driver State Monitoring
• Direct monitoring: ≥ 10 kph
• Indirect monitoring (e.g. steering wheel movements): ≥ 65 kph
Distraction
• Long distraction
• Short distraction (visual attention sharing)
• Phone use
Fatigue
• Drowsiness
• Microsleep https://cdn.euroncap.com/media/6

•
7892/euro-ncap-assessment-
Sleep protocol-sa-safe-driving-v1001.pdf

Unresponsive driver
 EURONCAP Testing Synopsis

• OEM provides dossier

• Spot check by test laboratory
• Test driver checks based on test
protocol
• No degradation by common
occlusions
• Lighting (day / night)
• Eyewear
• Facial hair

• System should recognize performance

degradation
• EuroNCAP does not test performance
beyond checks
https://cdn.euroncap.com/media/67892/euro-ncap-assessment-protocol-sa-safe-driving-v1001.pdf
 Conclusions and Proposed Implications for Projects

• The presented EU regulations and EuroNCAP test • Lessons learned from aviation, e.g.:
protocols have important potential to increase safety NASA‘s Aviation Safety Reporting System
• Confidential
• Also, need to be considered when implementing driver • Voluntary
impairment systems • Non-punitive
• Critical questions for researching and building such
systems
1. What is the necessary performance for driver
acceptance and sustained use?
2. What performance is technically possible and what are
the main influencing / constrainting factors?
3. How to gain operational acceptance and cooperation
from commercial drivers?

https://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/
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