Examining the Effectiveness of Forward Collision Warnings for Drowsy Drivers

Forward collision warnings (FCW) offer the potential to reduce frontal crashes by alerting drivers and are becoming standard in vehicles. These systems are largely intended to alert distracted drivers, but a pending question is the efficacy of FCW alerts for other types of impairment that might slow reaction time. To that end, this study examined the effectiveness of auditory and haptic FCW for drowsy drivers using a high-fidelity motion-base driving simulator. Overall, there was no evidence of that FCWs altered the response behavior of drowsy drivers relative to a group of drowsy drivers that did not receive a warning. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for design of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and driver state monitoring.