University of Iowa testing drunken driver sensing technology

IOWA CITY — After seeing big drops in alcohol-related driving deaths in the 1990s, progress nationally has stalled — compelling University of Iowa researchers to study whether an expanding array of automotive technology could again move the needle.

The UI Driving Safety Research Institute — home to the National Advanced Driving Simulator — recently landed $2 million from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to assess how effective new driver monitoring systems might be at determining if someone is driving drunk.

“The big thing is, at the end of the day how do these systems work? How effective might they be? What is the potential for them to reduce crashes that result in fatalities?” said Tim Brown, director of drugged driving research at the UI institute. “There’s a lot of effort that goes into trying to drop that number down, and it just isn’t budging.”

Total traffic fatalities have jumped over the last decade from 32,893 in 2013 to 42,514 in 2022, and with it the rate of alcohol-related vehicle deaths from 30 percent a decade ago to 32 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Of the 13,524 people who died in alcohol-related crashes in 2022 — up from 10,084 in 2013 — 59 percent were alcohol-impaired; 12 percent were their passengers; 16 percent were in other vehicles; and 12 percent were non-occupants — like pedestrians or cyclists.

“And so I think the question at this point is, are there technological methods that can help reduce that — whether it's from distraction, drowsiness, or alcohol,” Brown said, noting his team also is researching potential tools to help with drowsy and distracted driving. “What sort of supports can new technology provide to help prevent people from being involved in these crashes?”

Technology opportunity

The opportunity for technological help in addressing these larger societal problems is increasing as ever-advancing driver monitoring systems are being designed and installed in more and more vehicles.

Some, using a camera capable of tracking eye and head movement, can alert a driver to stop and rest or keep their eyes on the road, for example.

“The question that pops up is to what extent could we use that sort of technology to determine whether or not somebody is legally impaired?” Brown said. “Are there signatures that can be observed from vehicle-control sort of measures, like the way in which the vehicle is operated.”

Are there facial reaction cues or steering wheel sensors that could measure heart rate or respiration indicative of alcohol use, Brown said.

“We're really looking at trying to understand the feasibility of protecting somebody who is above the legal limit and also differentiating that from other types of impairment that might be out there, you know, if a driver is drowsy,” he said.

A new generation of systems are being developed to identify when drivers are over the legal blood alcohol content limit. But, Brown said, one of the big challenges will be not just determining if someone is impaired, but how they’re impaired, to what degree, and what to do about it.

“To know what to do, you have to know how they're impaired,” he said. “So if somebody’s distracted, you don't want to provide responses designed to help somebody who's drowsy.”

The UI study on alcohol-related driver monitoring systems will put participants in a driving simulator in four different states: when they’re alert and sober; when they’re drowsy and sober; when their blood alcohol content is at .08; and when their BAC is .12.

Researchers will collect data on driver performance, eye tracking, head and body movements, heart rate, and respiration to determine “which of those measures are most sensitive in differentiating the type of impairment?”

Prep phase

The alcohol-related research is in its preparatory phase — determining the right sensors and cameras and other technology to use. Investigators also still need to determine the best “driving environment” to test.

“People can drive impaired wherever,” he said. “However, there are areas where alcohol impaired driving is more overly represented — in terms of crashes and fatal crashes. So we're trying to work our way through the driving environment to make sure that where we’re testing represents the sort of environments where the most risk is present.”

The plan is to start some preliminary studies later this year — before scaling up to full data collection next spring.

And Brown’s team also is conducting separate studies on distracted and drowsy driving and monitor systems that might help.

“There's a lot of technology that's been put in place to try and help people make better choices,” he said. “The (driver monitoring system) is just another opportunity to do that across a wide array of things.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com