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Deliverable D4.2.1 Dissemination Level PU Contract N. IST-1-507674-IP
3.5. The European Statement of Principles: Current Status and next steps
Presenter: Valerie Moutal, EC/IST
In-vehicle driver information and support systems (eg navigation, communications,
collision warning) need to be carefully designed so that they do not distract the driver and can
properly support the driving task. In December 1999 the European Commission (EC) adopted
the European Statement of Principles (ESoP) in acknowledgement of the importance of
Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) safety for in-vehicle telematics. In recommending
adherence to the ESoP, the EC urged the European motor manufacturing and in-vehicle
information systems supply industry to comply with the ESoP which outlined a number of
basic safety requirements concerning the design of, and driver interaction with, in-vehicle
information, communication and entertainment systems. Member States were invited by the
EC to take steps to encourage industry to comply with the ESoP and report back on the
awareness of ESoP within the industry and the degree of compliance to the ESoP by the
industry by December 2001. Only a handful of Member States reported back. In recent
months an EC e-Safety Working Group has identified the potential safety benefits of driver
information and assistance systems for the driver and has recommended that HMI issues be
given urgent attention. An Expert Group for HMI has therefore been set up under the e-Safety
initiative. This Expert Group will effectively address the HMI safety issues as the ‘next steps’
to the outcome of the EC ESoP exercise.
The principles, 35 in total, are divided into six categories:
• Overall design principles
Since there are only three of them, they can be quoted here in full in order to get an idea of the
principles format and content:
- ‘The system should be designed to support the driver and should not give rise to potentially
hazardous behaviour by the driver or other road users.’
- ‘The system should be designed in such a way that the allocation of driver attention
to the system displays or controls remain compatible with the attentional demand of
the driving situation.’
- ‘The system should be designed so as not to distract or visually entertain the driver.’
• Installation principles
Five principles deal with the way in which in-vehicle systems should be positioned and fitted.
It is not so much driver ‘active’ distraction as the possible obstruction of the driver’s view and
of controls and displays that is the subject here.
• Information presentation principles
This category, which contains five principles, together with the next two, forms the core
of the statement. Several of the principles included in it deal explicitly or implicitly with
driver distraction.
• Principles on interaction with displays and controls
This category deals with the ‘hardware’ of interacting with the in-vehicle system.
• System behaviour principles
25/07/2005 18 ICCS