In-Vehicle Information Systems Demand Model (Research Update)
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Summary
This research update from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) addresses the challenge of designing safe In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS) by quantifying the attentional resources these systems demand from drivers. The study is motivated by the need to ensure that IVIS technologies, which aim to improve mobility and efficiency, do not compromise driver safety by overloading the driver’s limited attentional pool. The primary goal was to provide designers and highway engineers with tools to evaluate the usability and safety of IVIS designs based on human factors principles. To achieve this, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute developed the In-Vehicle Information System Design Evaluation and Model of Attentional Demand (IVIS DEMAnD) software. This Windows-based tool allows users to evaluate the attentional load of specific IVIS tasks by analyzing five driver resources: visual, auditory, supplemental information processing, manual, and speech demands. The software operates by having users select tasks from a library derived from technical literature or previous designs, or by defining new tasks using a guided "Wizard" tool. Users can modify nominal task values using parameters such as roadway complexity, traffic density, character height, and message length. The program then compares the resulting attentional demand against benchmark safety criteria, such as single glance time and total visual task time, to determine if driving performance is affected or substantially affected. The development of the IVIS DEMAnD model relied on data from an extensive literature review and four specific on-road field studies conducted by the research team. These "real-world" data sources informed the model equations and analytical tools. The software is designed with a modular architecture, allowing for future expansion of the task library as new data becomes available. The evaluation process provides graphical displays of relative driving task performance and generates printable reports at the system, task, or subtask levels. If a design poses heavy demands on driver resources, the tool enables designers to modify the IVIS to lower these demands. The significance of this work lies in providing a standardized, evidence-based method for assessing IVIS safety before deployment. By establishing critical values for measures like glance duration and auditory complexity, the DEMAnD program offers a practical mechanism for preventing designs that interfere with primary driving tasks. This tool supports the broader Human Centered Systems Research Program by translating empirical human performance data into actionable design guidelines, thereby facilitating the integration of intelligent transportation systems that enhance convenience without sacrificing safety.
Key finding
The IVIS DEMAnD tool flags in-vehicle task demand against benchmarks such as single-glance time of 1.6 versus 2.0 seconds and total task time of 12 versus 25 seconds to mark when driving is affected or substantially affected.
Methodology
modeling
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (7 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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- Applied Guidance: design guidelines
- Methodological Resource: tool software, measurement protocol