Every year 1.35 million people lose their lives in road crashes, and an additional 20-50 million suffer non-fatal injuries, often resulting in long-term disabilities. A major cause for road accidents is drowsy and distracted driving. In the US alone, drowsy driving accounts for about 100,000 crashes annually on the roadway, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities per year. Studies show that people who sleep 6-7 hours a night are twice as likely to be involved in a crash against those sleeping 8 hours or more. People sleeping less than 5 hours increase the risk by four to five times. In fact, being awake for at least 18 hours is the same as someone having a blood alcohol content of 0.05%.
Stages of drowsy driving
The unsolved problem of drowsy & distracted driving
Key warning signs of drowsiness are particularly dangerous as they appear to be common behavior, but are critical to avoiding a tragedy.
- You can’t seem to keep your eyes focused
- You can’t keep your eyes open and keep blinking
- Your head suddenly feels unbearably heavy
Distracted driving adds to the perils of our roads. Activity-based distraction or inattentiveness, and cognitive distraction where the eyes are on the road but mentally not present hamper the ability to avoid an accident.
Driver habits and behavior have a lot to do with distracted driving. Accidents tend to be both more frequent and more severe when speeding, and drowsy drivers are studied to have shown to brake less. Commercial drivers and shift workers with extended hours are at-risk groups for distracted and drowsy driving, given the long hours and unforgiving deadlines they face.
DRISHTI monitors & protects from distracted driving
drivebuddyAI’s DRISHTI monitors every second of driver behavior & analyzes the surrounding risk in real time. The AI powered driving assistant with vision-based technology improves driver behavior on the move. It recognizes driver behavior, and driving patterns, and identifies the safes and risky drivers along with actionable safety insights.
The device ensures that drivers remain focused on the road and avoid any critical situation.
How it helps?
With actionable insights in place, and critical events reported – drivebuddyAI enables you to adjust and rationalize the driving schedule for long-haul journeys. It allows you to select the right driver for a specific journey based on past history, demonstrated skill, and learnings. And observe an improvement in driver behavior with personalized training. DRISHTI has the vision to not only enhance the driving experience, improve driving behavior, and provide assistance while driving, but to adapt and upgrade itself according to the driver.