Drowsy driver problem studied

I know I’ve done it. I’ve driven along a boring highway at night and suddenly I bolt awake, knowing I’d just nodded off behind the wheel. Then I thank my lucky stars I didn’t completely fall asleep and crash, hurting myself or someone else.

Ford has been studying this phenomenon its researchers call “microsleep” and, since October, have been experimenting with ways to keep you awake and driving safely.

“Technologies are becoming available that allow us to do something about the drowsy driver,” said Jeff Greenberg, manager of Ford’s VIRTTEX (Virtual Test Track Experiment) inside Ford’s research facilities in Dearborn, Mich. Ford plans, by the end of the decade, to put technologies they find effective in their research into future vehicles from Volvo, a Ford brand that boasts its safety leadership, and eventually its other brands.

“Crashes attributed directly to drowsy drivers are a relatively small percentage of all accidents. But they are relatively deadly crashes,” Mr. Greenberg said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates drowsiness accounts for about 1.5 percent of all crashes and about 4 percent of all fatal crashes, accounting for more than 1,500 deaths a year.

“It is believed these kinds of accidents are underreported because it’s hard to know what happened, especially in the case of a fatality,” Mr. Greenberg added.

Ford has been hiring ordinary people — at a pay rate it won’t reveal — to take part in tests of technologies. The drivers must stay awake for 36 hours, during which time they wear a watchband with a sensor to make sure they haven’t fallen asleep. They can consume no caffeine and are chauffeured to Ford’s lab at 6 a.m. They are outfitted with a baseball cap with a see-through plastic square positioned in front of one eye. It reflects the image of the eye into a camera under the brim of the hat.

The participants then board the VIRTTEX simulator; a giant white dome perched on a turntable, held aloft by six hydraulic legs. The turntable tilts to simulate vehicle motion. Inside the dome, a Volvo S80 (gas tank and engine removed), is bolted to the floor.

The wall in front of the vehicle lights up the darkened room with a scene of a highway, one patterned after a dark, rural stretch of Michigan’s Interstate 94.

The participant begins driving, ideally for three hours, though some don’t last. Throughout the test, they are asked by researchers via a microphone, about their level of drowsiness based on a scale of one to nine, with one being completely alert and nine being fighting sleep.

They are asked to perform a task — when they see a light appear on either side of the road, they are to press a button on the steering wheel until the light goes out.

Ford researchers watch the driver, the driver’s eye and driving skills on video monitors in an adjacent control room. A computer calculates the percentage of the eye that is closed and where the eye is focused.

As the driver becomes drowsy and begins making errors, such as drifting off the highway or into the next lane, various technologies kick in.

A red light flashes through the head-up display, which projects the road image, to alert the driver to take action. In another, the steering wheel shakes to wake the driver; one system technology actually gives the steering wheel a nudge to put the car back into its lane. Another mimics the sound of driving over rumble strips. Still another produces the vibration, as well as the noise of driving over rumble strips. More dramatic, when the driver drifts into the other lane, another car appears in that lane with the horn honking.

When the test concludes, the participant, who agrees to get 10 hours of sleep to recover from sleep deprivation, is driven home. So far, about 28 people have done Ford’s test. They have been men and women ranging in age from 21 to 70, who have purchased or intend to buy a premium vehicle, either one from Volvo or its competitors.

Soon, Ford researchers intend to have a preliminary report on the most effective — and least annoying — method of waking the drowsy driver.

While technologies are under development, Ford’s Mr. Greenberg suggests a 30-minute nap or drinking caffeine beverages to eliminate drowsiness.