Monitoring of driver and vehicle performance

There is a growing awareness amongst road users and traffic professionals that driver impairment is responsible for a significant proportion of road accidents. Driver impairment monitoring (DIM) systems are under development which employ a range of sensor technology in order to detect the symptoms of impairment. These systems use a variety of measurement techniques, some relying purely on vehicle input control, others use more elaborate data collection and analyses, and some may use a combination of both approaches. The paper provides a discussion of the viability of these monitoring systems. It is argued that DIM technology must be evaluated according to the following three criteria: sensitivity, reliability, and acceptability