Fatigue negatively affects driver’s physical, cognitive, psychomotor and sensory processing capabilities, which are needed for safe driving. Driver fatigue is a factor in 10-25 % of all road crashes in the Union. Driver drowsiness and attention warning (‘DDAW’) systems monitor a driver’s level of drowsiness and alert the driver through the vehicle human machine interface (HMI). Meanwhile, any processing of personal data in DDAW system shall be carried out in accordance with Union data protection law.

• DDAW system control: It shall not be possible for the driver to manually deactivate the DDAW system. It may however be possible for the driver to manually deactivate the DDAW system HMI warnings. Any activation and deactivation of DDAW systems need to meet regulatory requirements The DDAW system shall be automatically activated above the speed of 70 km/h.

• Environmental conditions: The DDAW system shall operate effectively during the day and night.

• Monitoring driver drowsiness: The DDAW system shall provide a warning to the driver at a level of drowsiness which is equivalent to or above 8 on the KSS. The DDAW system may provide a warning to the driver at a level of drowsiness which is equivalent to level 7 on KSS.

• Human Machine interface requirements: Visual and acoustic or any other warning used by the DDAW system to alert the driver shall be presented as soon as possible after occurrence of the trigger behaviour and may cascade and intensify until acknowledgement thereof by the driver. The visual and acoustic warning shall be easily recognised by the driver. The symbols of visual warning shall comply with the requirements.

• DDAW failure warning: When there are failures detected in the DDAW system, visual failure warning signals shall be provided.

• Manufacturers shall carry out validation testing to ensure that DDAW systems are able to monitor driver drowsiness in a manner which is accurate, robust and scientifically valid. 

• Testing requirements: Validation testing shall take place using human participants. Alternatively the data used for the validation shall derive from behaviour data collected with human participants. The validation testing can be carried out in a real-world road environment or a simulator. If validation testing is performed in a simulator, the manufacturer shall document its limitations with regard to real-world open road testing.

• Test sample: The minimum sample size of participants shall be 10 participants. The participants shall correspond to the targeted demography for the vehicle. None of the 10 participants of the minimum sample size shall be involved in the development of DDAW system.

• Environmental conditions: At a minimum, the system shall be tested in the day and night conditions from point 4.1.1. or 4.1.2.

• Measuring drowsiness: The participant’s level of drowsiness shall be measured using the KSS. Manufacturers may use an alternative measurement(s) to validate a DDAW system.

• Alternative drowsiness threshold: If alternative measurements to KSS are used to validate a DDAW system, the manufacture shall state the threshold being used and provide evidence detailing the equivalency between the threshold and a KSS level of 8.

• Test results: Test data shall only be discarded by the manufacturer before any statistical analysis is conducted in 3 kinds cases. The manufacturer shall document any errors that occur during testing shall be documented as part of the evidence in the documentation package.

• Acceptance criteria: the average sensitivity is above 40 %. The lower bound from the 90% confidence interval of the sensitivity results shall be above 20%. 

The technical service shall assess the documentation package containing evidence of the effectiveness of the system provided by the manufacturer. The technical service may use means at its discretion for the assessment of the test report.

The test shall be accounted as passed as soon as the DDAW system provides a warning for a drowsy driver. If the test fails to provide a warning for a drowsy driver, the technical service may repeat it up to two times. The root cause of any failed test run shall be analysed by the technical service and the analysis shall be annexed to the test report.

ATIC Global Homologation Research and Vehicle Certification Department is dedicated to global automotive access research and vehicle certification. Based on the ATIC digital platform, ATIC provides a series of overseas automotive compliance services, including: vehicle homologation consulting, multi-country product access solutions, technical verification, regulatory interpretation, regulatory tracking, regulatory training and technical answering services, etc. ATIC vehicle certification experts have designations of all EU/UN regulations for M/N/O/T/L/NRMM vehicles, whole certification process including factory audit, laboratory audit, visual test, CoP audit and report signing can be done locally in China. ATIC have designations of Netherlands (e/E4), Sweden (e/E5), Luxembourg (e/E13), Ireland (e/E24), Latvia (e/E32), Latvia (e/E32), Cyprus (e/E49), Lithuania (e/E36) (E57), and San Marino (E57).