Detection of Driving Distractions and Their Impacts: A Comprehensive Review

For decades, road crashes have caused many deaths and injuries and generally had a severe social and economic impact on societies. According to studies, driver distraction has led to an increase in the risks related to driving. In recent years there have been more distracting factors that are commonly affecting drivers, which would raise a need for a resolution. Therefore, as technology is becoming more advanced, there is an opportunity to minimize these risks for which driver distraction detection would be required. As there is a variety of distractions that might affect drivers and their performance differently, there are many studies focusing on this topic. In order to better understand the field of driver distraction detection, this literature has reviewed the existing studies in the field. Therefore, different variables of the existing methodologies and experimental setups are identified and explained. Also, the results of these experiments and the impacts of different distraction factors on drivers’ physiological reactions, visual signals, or their performances are categorized and described. Furthermore, this study discusses the factors of the existing methodologies and their results, along with pointing out the research gaps. The purpose of this study is to assist future research and investigation in this field, by creating a review that comprehensively covers different aspects of existing studies and discusses and assesses their methodologies and findings.