Uhura -- A Driver’s Personal Coach for Managing Risk

sualties are in no small part rooted in stress. In California, for example, drivers can avoid a first ticket by attending driving school. One might expect California driving schools to focus on reinforcing the rules of the road. Instead, they focus on teaching drivers about techniques for stress and time management, as a way to address overly aggressive, reckless driving behavior.

Improving safety by reducing stress requires a strategic view. Our research problem is to develop a driver’s assistant that improves safety as well as the driving experience, by acting both as a personal assistant, and as a stress reducing coach. The assistant will accomplish this by helping the driver to plan ahead. First, our assistant will help drivers to manage their time in order to avoid the need to rush. Second, our assistant will help drivers to adjust their goals, if needed, to act safely. Finally, our assistant will help drivers proactively to contend with emergencies and disruptions, while allowing drivers to keep their attention on the road.

We envision a driver's assistant analogous to "Siri", but much more capable and knowledgeable about travel and driving. Our assistant, call it "Uhura," differs from Siri, Google Now and Cortana, in that Uhura will be an expert about planning and monitoring everyday tasks, an expert at estimating risks, an expert at planning contingencies for likely failures, an expert at collaborating with the driver when things go wrong, and an expert at communicating and coordinating with others that are affected by disruptions. Uhura will know the context of the driver's life and goals, will know the context of the environment (including the status and goals of other automobiles in the neighborhood based on network communication), and will know general information, such as weather, road conditions, topography of terrain, and the location of facilities, such as restaurants and service stations. Uhura will use this information to generate sensible advice that strives to meet user preferences without incurring too much risk, and will communicate this advice in a natural way, through a combination of speech and displayed visual cues.