Zero-Configuration Alarms: Towards Reducing Distracting Smartphone Interactions while Driving

Abstract

The rising ubiquity of smartphones for navigation and driver mode, among others, has increased their use significantly among drivers; however, there are growing numbers of road fatalities being reported due to distractions from the phone while driving. In contrast to the existing solutions that use a camera or other communication media on the car or need external setups, this article proposes a solution called ZeCA , where the smartphone itself can identify in real time with zero pre-configurations whether its user is driving while engaging in a high-distraction interaction with the phone. ZeCA runs as a smartphone background service and generates audio-visual alerts when the phone can distract the driver. A thorough evaluation and usability study of ZeCA with 50 different models of vehicles driven by 70 drivers over five countries indicates that the proposed solution can infer distracting smartphone interactions with greater than 80% accuracy and a 70% reduction in smartphone usage during driving.