Blog of RENAULT NISSAN Alliance

The future of road safety has been bolstered by a new initiative from Renault that aims to collect and analyze unprecedented amounts of data on driver behavior. In partnership with PSA Peugeot Citroën, Renault has established a Laboratory of Accidentology and Biomechanics (LAB) that investigates precisely why and how accidents occur – and proposes solutions to prevent their reoccurrence.

The LAB has already conducted an initial study on a small sample group, focusing on how humans interact with driver assistance systems such as cruise control. Now, the study is being expanded to include 120 vehicles, each with two drivers, for a total sample of 240 people.

Data will be collected from the vehicles' onboard computer systems (speed, GPS coordinates, etc.), as well as from eight cameras that will film driver behavior from inside the car. Each camera will record 100 Mb of data per hour, and, with the average person clocking 400 hours of driving time annually, the LAB team estimates that it will gather 70 terabytes of data over the 2-year study.

To analyze all this data, LAB will be equipped to handle “Big Data”, the term used to describe large, complex data sets that help improve statistical accuracy. The ultimate objective is to understand how drivers react to onboard screens and driver assistance systems – and how they become distracted. For this reasons, the study will focus on the Renault Clio and Mégane, both equipped with devices such as Rlink Multimedia system or Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (cruise control, lane departure warnings).

It's an ambitious project – but one that should help improve both onboard assistance and road safety in the years to come.

Read the full article here (French only).