Preventing traffic accidents with in-vehicle decision support systems - The impact of accident hotspot warnings on driver behaviour

• Published in: Decision Support Systems Vol. 99; pp. 64 - 74
• Main Authors: Ryder, Benjamin, Gahr, Bernhard, Egolf, Philipp, Dahlinger, Andre, Wortmann, Felix
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-07-2017; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Subjects: Accident hotspots; Collision avoidance; Collision avoidance systems; Crashworthiness; Decision support systems; Driver behavior; Drivers; Effectiveness; High resolution; Impact strength; In vehicle; In-vehicle decision support systems; Location analytics; Studies; Telematics; Traffic; Traffic accidents; Traffic accidents & safety; Vehicle safety; Location analytics; Accident hotspots; In-vehicle decision support systems
• ISSN: 0167-9236; 1873-5797
• DOI: 10.1016/j.dss.2017.05.004

Despite continuous investment in road and vehicle safety, as well as improvements in technology standards, the total amount of road traffic accidents has been increasing over the last decades. Consequently, identifying ways of effectively reducing the frequency and severity of traffic accidents is of utmost importance. In light of the depicted challenge, latest studies provide promising evidence that in-vehicle decision support systems (DSSs) can have significant positive effects on driving behaviour and collision avoidance. Going beyond existing research, we developed a comprehensive in-vehicle DSS, which provides accident hotspot warnings to drivers based on location analytics applied to a national historical accident dataset, composed of over 266,000 accidents. As such, we depict the design and field evaluation of an in-vehicle DSS, bridging the gap between real world location analytics and in-vehicle warnings. The system was tested in a country-wide field test of 57 professional drivers, with over 170,000km driven during a four-week period, where vehicle data were gathered via a connected car prototype system. Ultimately, we demonstrate that in-vehicle warnings of accident hotspots have a significant improvement on driver behaviour over time. In addition, we provide first evidence that an individual's personality plays a key role in the effectiveness of in-vehicle DSSs. However, in contrast to existing lab experiments with very promising results, we were unable to find an immediate effect on driver behaviour. Hence, we see a strong need for further field experiments with high resolution car data to confirm that in-vehicle DSSs can deliver in diverse field situations.
•An in-vehicle DSS providing accident hotspot warnings is proposed.•This in-vehicle warning system was tested across a longitudinal field study.•Providing evidence that in-vehicle warnings improve driver behaviour over time.•Indication that this learning effect is bound to a driver's level of Agreeableness.