Enhancing Road Safety By Regulation: A Quick Overview
Save 25,000 lives and prevent 140,000 serious injuries in Europe by 2038: this is the ambitious goal the European Union (EU) aims to achieve through a series of measures enacted since 2019. Leveraging technological advancements, the EU has introduced regulations mandating fatigue detection features (since 2022) and distraction detection features (from July this year) in all new models of cars, vans, trucks, and buses. These measures mark a significant step forward in improving the safety of drivers, passengers, vehicles, and cargo.
While Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) enhance driving comfort and facilitate tasks such as lane-keeping, automated braking, and detecting other road users, they can also create a false sense of increased safety, especially for inexperienced drivers. This underscores the necessity for mandatory driver support systems (DSS), also known as driver/cabin/occupant monitoring systems (DMS/OMS), like #roboGaze’s advanced modular Soteria Driver Support System, which has become an unavoidable necessity, and has been at the forefront of EU road safety regulations.
The Union’s Vehicle General Safety Regulation has required since July 2022 that all new vehicle types be equipped with a Driver Drowsiness and Attention Warning (DDAW) system. This system assesses the driver’s alertness and issues warnings when needed, automatically activating at speeds above 70 km/h. Soteria detects various physiological symptoms of fatigue—such as yawning, head orientation, nodding, eyelid movements, and gaze direction—and uses state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms to provide real-time driver alertness status and immediate warnings if necessary. This regulation extends to all new vehicles, including older models, starting this summer.
Another milestone this summer is the extension of the Vehicle General Safety Regulation, which requires that no new vehicle type can be approved without an Advanced Driver Distraction Warning (ADDW) system from July 2024. Distracted drivers are responsible for nearly 10% of fatal collisions, with activities like mobile phone use (particularly texting), eating, and drinking, which can divert the driver’s attention from the driving tasks for dangerously long, while significantly reducing reaction times. Not only novice drivers are involved: the more competent you feel, the more you are prone to drive recklessly every now and then. This feature of #roboGaze's Soteria DSS employs extensive scientific research and artificial intelligence to monitor driver attention and recognize risky behaviors and signs of distraction.
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Beyond official regulations, since 2023, the top voluntary European new car assessment program, Euro NCAP, has awarded its highest ratings only to vehicles with driver support/monitoring systems featuring both fatigue and distraction detection. Euro NCAP, a respected organization consisting of transport authorities, research labs, and automobile associations from several European countries, has been setting industry benchmarks for almost thirty years. Its requirements are often stricter than EU regulations, and #roboGaze has preemptively adapted the development of Soteria DSS to meet these higher standards, now offering a wide range of safety features that can easily be configured to any requirement while also complying with the EU’s stringent biometric data policies.
It's fair to ask where the US stands in terms of nationwide road safety regulations. The US emphasizes combating driving under the influence and plans to make alcohol sensors mandatory in new car types. At the federal level there have been attempts for a couple of years to enhance road safety by regulatory means, and as numbers of road fatalities are almost three times as high as in Europe, in 2021 the US Congress directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to introduce new vehicle safety standards by November 2024, potentially mandating these features in all new cars by 2027. Although the US lags behind Europe in leveraging technological progress for road safety, we are confident that the US, along with other regions like China, will soon catch up.
The safety of drivers, passengers, and vehicles can always be improved. As demand grows, #roboGaze is committed to meeting today’s needs at the highest level while our developers seek the answers to tomorrow’s questions.