Reducing stress and fuel consumption providing road information

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a solution to reduce the stress level of the driver, minimize fuel consumption and improve safety. The system analyzes the driving and driver workload during the trip. If it discovers an area where the stress increases and the driving style is worse from the point of view of energy efficiency, a photo is taken and is saved along with its location in a shared database. On the other hand, the solution warns the user when is approaching a region where the driving is difficult (high fuel consumption and stress) using the shared database. In this case, the proposal shows on the screen of the mobile device the image captured previously of the area. The aim is that driver knows in advance the driving environment. Therefore, he or she may adjust the vehicle speed and the driver workload decreases. Data Envelopment Analysis is used to estimate the efficiency of driving and driver workload in each area. We employ this method because there is no preconceived form on the data in order to calculate the efficiency and stress level. A validation experiment has been conducted with 6 participants who made 96 driving tests in Spain. The system reduces the slowdowns (38 %), heart rate (4.70 %), and fuel consumption (12.41 %). The proposed solution is implemented on Android mobile devices and does not require the installation of infrastructure on the road. It can be installed on any model of vehicle.