Evaluating safety effects of in-vehicle information systems : a detailed research proposal

In the near future, various types of in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) will be introduced on the market. From a traffic safety point of view, there is a need to determine the safety effects of these systems. A method is proposed to determine the safety effects of IVIS that are caused by overload and distraction of the driver. Discussed are in detail the types of driving situations where safety research should be carried out, the types of behaviour that should be measured, and the criteria to decide that safety is affected. Tasks are described for a particular IVIS (i.e., Radio Data System-Traffic Message Channel or RDS-TMC) that may cause overload of the driver. On basis of the considerations in this report, an experiment is proposed to assess the safety effects of these RDS-TMC tasks. From the results of that experiment, guidelines will be established for the interaction with IVIS in cars.