Telematics Technology and Distracted Driving

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). NHTSA’s mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes, through education, research, safety standards, and enforcement activity.

In 2021, 8% of fatal crashes were distraction-affected crashes, with distracted driving motor vehicle crashes claiming 3,522 lives. Prevalence of distracted driving has traditionally been measured through observational surveys (e.g., the National Occupant Protection Use Survey [NOPUS]), a census on fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes (i.e., the Fatality Analysis Reporting System [FARS]), and naturalistic driving studies (i.e., NDSs, such as the Second Strategic Highway Research Program Naturalistic Driving Study [SHRP 2]). However, telematics technology may represent another option for measuring and transmitting information about distracted driving engagement. Telematics technology involves “services where telecommunications are employed to transmit information provided by sensors.” Smartphone-based telematics technology involves the use of built-in smartphone sensors to collect data on driver behavior and performance, then transmit the information to interested stakeholders. The current project will focus on different forms of data collection, specifically focusing on NDS Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) and smartphone-based telematic apps in terms of accuracy at providing information, resources required for utilizing each technology, and ease of use and distribution (Study 1).  The project will also involve data collection and analyses using these two technologies in terms of distracted driving engagement according to participant sex and age (which will be analyzed using the current project’s data sets) (Study 2).

• District of Columbia