Onboard monitoring and reporting for commercial vehicle motor safety

This Final Report describes the process and product from the project, Onboard Monitoring and Reporting for Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety (OBMS), in which a prototypical suite of hardware and software on a class 8 truck was developed and tested. The OBMS suite allows for online measurement of a set of driving characteristics which are indicators of unsafe driving behavior. These characteristics included speed, following distance, lane-keeping performance, safety belt use, and the use of turn signals. Feedback could be provided to the drivers, either directly via real-time feedback or through carrier management, to allow drivers to significantly improve their safety performance. For example, if a driver received a report that he/she is not using his/her turn signals during lane changes, that driver can then be monitored during a follow-up period to determine if the feedback had corrected the deficiency. Commercial fleets would pioneer this concept because they have the resources and organizational structure to provide feedback and training to professional drivers. This concept differs from commercial onboard devices in that it is an ensemble set of instruments (not one or a few warning devices) with a safety focus and different feedback modalities. It is comprehensive in that it addresses crash causes and provides corrective feedback in real-time and/or post trip feedback, depending on the particular subsystem(s) which are activated. In essence, the objective is to improve driver safety behavior.