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GENERAL OVERVIEW
This project is supported within the specific
programme Competitive and Sustainable Growth and is in specific
response to Growth Task 2.2.5/6 - Development of methodologies
and performance measures to assess long term safety implications
of new in-vehicle technologies including HMI for road transport.
The aim of HASTE (Human Machine Interface
And the Safety of Traffic in Europe)
is to develop methodologies and guidelines for the assessment
of In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS). To date, there
have been attempts to provide manufacturers and testing
authorities with a set of guidelines to assess the likely
impacts of IVIS on the driving task, usually in the form
of a checklist. Such checklists provide a tool that enables
the identification of likely problems but they do not attempt
to quantify safety problems. This project is fundamental
to the development of a valid, reliable and efficient tool
that will aid testing authorities in their safety evaluation
of IVIS. With the advent of sophisticated technology (mobile
and portable) and the increase in the amount of time spent
on the road, the car has become a potential home to many
different types of systems. Such systems range from those
which convey simple information to the driver (for example
incident warnings) to those that require the driver to interact
with a system in order to extract the required function
(for example a route guidance system). There is an urgent
need to develop thorough testing and diagnostic procedures
for such systems in order to regulate their inclusion in
the vehicle. If no such procedures are set up, the driving
task may become of secondary importance to tasks relating
to interaction with the system. If such distraction occurs,
there is evidence that traffic safety will be compromised.
The partnership consists of eight European partners and
one partner from a country with a cooperation agreement.
A balance of Northern and Southern European countries is
represented. Such a balance is deemed necessary to a project
such as this not least because drivers' needs and behaviour
may vary across Europe. Expertise in the area of driver
behaviour and system evaluation is guaranteed by the inclusion
of the academic and research institutions, each of which
bring a particular speciality to the project. The two industrial
partners, one of which is a vehicle manufacturer, will ensure
that the project goals are realistic and timely and provide
important input with regards to design and manufacturing.
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