Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - November 2022 - 3

The Navigator
Volvo leads the shift to 'driver understanding'
In recent weeks, Volvo started teasing out some
of the details of its all-electric replacement for the
XC90 SUV, dubbed the EX90. As expected from
the Swedish brand, safety is front and center. While
we've known for more than a year that the vehicle
now branded as EX90 would feature a more robust
exterior sensor suite, including Luminar-developed
lidar, what really caught my attention is the driver-understanding
system.
In 2022, driver-monitoring systems (DMS)
aren't particularly unique anymore. General Motors
included an infrared camera to ensure the driver
was watching the road when it debuted " handsfree "
Super Cruise in 2017. Similar
DMS now are found on vehicles
from many OEMs, including Ford,
Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Nissan and
Toyota, with more to come in 2023
and beyond. The DMS that is in
the market today looks only at the
driver's eye gaze and head position
to detect visual distractions such
as looking at a phone, infotainment
screen or passenger.
Volvo's announcement highexperienced,
they react to most situations without
consciously thinking about it. This is similar to not
actually thinking about the motions of walking
while we're doing something else.
Naturalistic driving research has shown that
If ADAS
features are
disabled, they
certainly can't
help in the
rare instances
when they are
needed.
lighted that the EX90's DMS also
will be looking for cognitive distractions - those
in which the driver's eyes are on the road, but his/
her mind might be elsewhere. We've all experienced
situations, especially on a long drive, where
you suddenly realize you can't remember the last
several minutes of the trip. That can be dangerous.
But according to Volvo cognitive scientist
Mikael Ljung-Aust, it might not always be necessary
for the vehicle to intervene in such instances. LjungAust
and his colleagues have been conducting a
series of experiments over the years to understand
driver behavior and responses to various inputs. It
turns out that much of the driver's task consists
of automated responses: As drivers become more
over time, drivers' eye motions and viewing patterns
are surprisingly consistent. Within a bounding box
of behavior, drivers can reliably respond to virtually
all driving scenarios. So, in deciding when to alert
the driver or otherwise intervene, Volvo's driver-understanding
system instead looks for eye and head
motions that go outside of expected behavior.
Interestingly, the goal with driver understanding
is not necessarily to have the system
intervene earlier or more often, but
later and less frequently. Numerous
studies have shown that advanced
driver-assistance systems (ADAS)
that are overly persistent or intrusive
annoy drivers to the point that they
frequently disable the system. Lanekeeping
assist systems are a common
source of complaints for drivers - and
often they are switched off.
The situations in which a driver
is unable to recover from an error
actually are rare. This is consistent with mileageper-crash
statistics: there are more than 3.2 trillion
vehicle miles traveled annually in the U.S and about
6.5 million crashes, or approximately one every
30 years for the average driver. However, if ADAS
features are disabled, they certainly can't help in
the rare instances when they are needed.
Ljung-Aust said that the goal of driver understanding
is to " arbitrate if you need help " and
create a better user experience. If ADAS is always
there when needed but stays out of the way the
rest of the time, drivers are less likely to disable it
and safety should improve. I can't wait to try it to
see how well it actually works. ■
Sam Abuelsamid
Principal Analyst,
eMobility
Guidehouse Insights
sam.abuelsamid@
guidehouse.com
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
November 2022 3
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - November 2022

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