Driver Performance Improvement Through the Driver Advocate: a Research Initiative Toward Automotive Safety

The flood of information reaching drivers - telematics, infotainment, collision warning and others - requires a new look at the car's user interface. Using concepts from affective computing, social sciences, cognitive psychology, and more traditional human-machine interface design, the Driver Advocate, a driver assistance interface being developed by Motorola, orchestrates the driver's attention to the most important task in a useful and acceptable manner. The Driver Advocate monitors all driver-related controls along with information from telematics, navigation and chassis control systems. For example, during a high workload situation the Driver Advocate will withhold non-essential incoming information until the driver has reacted to mission critical information, thus minimizing potential driver distraction. The purpose of this paper is to outline the research Motorola has initiated to better define the emerging opportunities and challenges.