Safety mechanism for assuring driver engagement during autonomous drive

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs configured to be executed by one or more processors of a vehicle control system, the one or more programs comprising instructions for performing a method comprising:

• obtaining a determined state of a driver of the vehicle from a driver monitoring, DMS.
• wherein the state of a driver comprises at least one attention parameter, and
• wherein the DMS comprises one or more cameras to monitor and track eyes of the driver;
• comparing the determined state of the driver with a predefined attention model in order to verify an integrity of the DMS, wherein the predefined attention model comprising an independent threshold range for each attention parameter, of the at least one attention parameter;
• determining a reliability of the DMS based on the comparison, determining the reliability including identifying that the DMS is not operation correctly based on one or more of the attention parameters being outside the independent threshold range;
• and
• controlling the driving assistance feature based on the determined reliability of the DMS, wherein controlling the driving assistance feature includes controlling one of an autonomous driving function or a semi-autonomous driving function.

A vehicle control device for controlling a driving assistance feature of a vehicle, the vehicle control device comprising a control circuit configured to:

• obtain a determined state of a driver of the vehicle from a driver monitoring system, DMS,
• wherein the state of the driver comprising at least one attention parameter, and
• wherein the DMS comprises one or more cameras to monitor and track eyes of the driver;
• compare the determined state of the driver with a predefined attention model in order to verify an integrity of the DMS, wherein the predefined attention model comprises an independent threshold range for each attention parameter, of the at least one attention parameter;
• determine a reliability of the DMS based on the comparison, determining the reliability including identifying that the DMS is not operation correctly based on one or more of the attention parameters being outside the independent threshold range;
• and
• control the driving assistance feature based on the determined reliability of the DMS, wherein controlling the driving assistance feature includes controlling one of an autonomous driving function or a semi-autonomous driving function.

A vehicle comprising:

• a driver monitoring system, DMS, for measuring eye and head position, driver attention and fatigue, wherein the DMS comprises one or more cameras to monitor and track eyes of a driver;
• and
• a vehicle control device for controlling a driving assistance feature of the vehicle, the vehicle control device comprising a control circuit configured to:
• obtained a determined state of the driver of the vehicle from the driver monitoring system, DMS, the state of the driver comprising at least one attention parameter;
• compare the determined state of the driver with a predefined attention model in order to verify an integrity of the DMS, wherein the predefined attention model comprises an independent threshold range for each attention parameter, of the at least one attention parameter;
• determine a reliability of the DMS based on the comparison, determining the reliability including identifying that the DMS is not operating correctly based on one or more of the attention parameters being outside the independent threshold range;
• and
• control the driving assistance feature based on the determined reliability of the DMS, wherein controlling the driving assistance feature includes controlling one of an autonomous driving function or a semi-autonomous driving function.