FitDrive – Control Device for Drivers

FitDrive is a project whose purpose is to minimize the risk of accidents through the use of a monitoring device for drivers. The goal of determining fitness to drive is to strike a balance between minimizing driving-related road safety risks for the individual, the community, maintaining the driver’s lifestyle and their employment-related mobility independence.

Project Description:

The project is generating and validating a new tool for monitoring and evaluating driving performance, cognitive load, physical fatigue, and reaction time.

The system creates neurophysiological models capable of detecting the occurrence of abnormal physical state in drivers, based on data obtained from IoT devices during work and driving activities, on-board intelligence, and smart tachographs. Artificial intelligence models will associate different types of abnormal behavior with their most likely cause: drugs, medication, alcohol, fatigue, etc.; and a cloud-based system will communicate to the driver, police patrols and infrastructure the information needed to improve road safety. Drugs and alcohol also have the potential to negatively affect driving skills; the project will also develop screening methods to detect new drugs and reduce the time needed for testing.

Problem they aim to solve:

Driving a car is a complex and dynamic task and there is a wide range of conditions that temporarily affect the ability to drive safely, such as substance abuse or fatigue. Professional drivers are particularly affected by fatigue. The main effect of fatigue is a gradual withdrawal of attention from the road and the demands of traffic, leading to a decrease in driving performance. The particular practice of professional drivers includes working long hours, prolonged night work, working irregular hours, little or poor sleep, and early start times which in many cases lead to fatigue. Fatigue leads to reduced alertness, increased reaction time, memory problems, poorer psychometric coordination and less efficient information processing. Results from various surveys around the world show that more than 50% of long-haul drivers have nearly fallen asleep at the wheel at some point.