A method of providing safety in a level 3 autonomous vehicle by mounting a plurality of cameras in a vehicular cabin to detect edges; translating the edges into motions of a human or a biological entity; and monitoring safety conditions for the human or biological entity.

Systems and methods for improving vehicular safety are provided. According to certain aspects, an electronic device may receive and analyze image data depicting an individual located within a vehicle. The electronic device may also access certain data related to a condition of the individual, and may accordingly determine whether the individual is fit to operate the vehicle. If the individual is unfit to operate the vehicle, the electronic device may generate and display a notification that indicates certain alternate modes of transportation or available lodging in a vicinity of the electronic device.

The invention relates to a distributed system (1; 11; 21) for access control and sobriety testing comprising an authorization control and sobriety testing station (2; 12; 22; 32), which obtains authorization data and a bodily signature sample from an individual seeking access, a central control unit (3; 13; 23; 33), which, if there is a positive verification of the authorization data and no detection of alcohol in the bodily signature sample, issues temporary authorization information, and at least one access control unit (4; 14; 24), which obtains the temporary authorization information and, upon a positive verification of the temporary authorization information, grants access to the individual who is seeking such access.

Managing vehicle operations according to driver behavior by: defining a multi-dimensional preemptive driver daily behavior (PDDB) data structure; defining a PDDB abnormal behavior criteria; and defining a PDDB abnormal behavior algorithm. Further, by: collecting PDDB data; acquiring a PDDB assessment according to the PDDB analysis; and preemptively communicating driver vehicle-access instructions according to the PDDB assessment.

A sobriety ignition interlock system including an engine control device and a method for managing available vehicle engine power using the sobriety ignition interlock system. The engine control device includes an engine control processor (ECP) that is electronically connected in between an engine control unit (ECU), an engine sensor assembly, and a sobriety processor. The sobriety processor determines a sobriety level of a vehicle driver and sends a corresponding sobriety signal to the ECP. The ECP intercepts an engine signal transmitted from the engine sensor assembly to the ECU and manipulates the engine signal according to the sobriety signal, in order to manage the available power of the vehicle engine.

An occupant monitoring device includes processing circuitry to detect an eye of an occupant on a vehicle and to determine an eye opening degree of the eye using an image captured by an image capturing device having an automatic exposure adjusting function for adjusting an exposure time; to determine that the eye is closed when the eye opening degree of the eye is less than a predetermined eye opening degree threshold value; to deactivate the automatic exposure adjusting function when the automatic exposure adjusting function is active and the eye is determined to be closed; to detect brightness in a vicinity of the eye using an image which is captured by the image capturing device after the automatic exposure adjusting function is deactivated; and when the eye is determined to be closed, to determine that the occupant is in a drowsy state when the brightness in the vicinity of the eye is less than a predetermined brightness threshold value, and to determine that the occupant is in an awake state when the brightness is equal to or greater than the predetermined brightness threshold value.

A method and system for remotely monitoring intoxication of a user, comprising: prompting the user to provide a breath sample at a time point; at a breath sample acquisition device, generating a breath sample signal upon reception of the breath sample from the user, and broadcasting a unique signature proximal in time to the time point; using a sensor of a mobile computing device, generating an authentication signal derived from detection of the unique signature; at a processing system in communication with the mobile computing device and the sample acquisition device, receiving the breath sample signal and the authentication signal; generating a verification assessment that validates provision of the breath sample by the user; determining a value of an intoxication metric for the user based upon the breath sample signal; and transforming the verification assessment and the value of the intoxication metric into an analysis of intoxication of the user.

A method for enabling driver operation of a motor vehicle includes receiving an electrical signal representing a property sensed by touching a region of skin of an occupant in the motor vehicle, and determining whether the occupant's ability to drive the motor vehicle is impaired based on the electrical signal. The method further includes performing an image based verification to determine whether the occupant from whom the property was sensed is in a driving position of the motor vehicle, and providing a control signal to enable operation of the motor vehicle based on a result of the determining and a result of the image based verification.

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for providing near real-time communication, such as a warning/notification, to a user based on analysis of various user and vehicle telematic data. The system includes a user with a wearable human telematic sensor providing telematic data about the wearer. Also, the system and method includes at least one vehicle telematic sensor configured to provide telematic data about the vehicle and/or surrounding environment. The various telematic data is communicated and processed to provide a notification back to the user such as a potential safety hazard. The safety hazard may be based upon sensed data specific to the user, specific to the vehicle, or combinations thereof.

Exhaustive driving analytical methods, systems, are apparatuses are described. The methods, systems, are apparatuses relate to monitoring driver and/or driving behaviors in view of an exhaustive list of variables to determine safety factors, identify times to react to events, and contextual information regarding the events. The methods, systems, and apparatuses described herein may determine, based on a systematic model, reactions and reaction times, compare the vehicle behavior (or lack thereof) to the modeled reactions and reaction times, and determine safety factors and instructions based on the comparison.