A 2009 study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration identified certain medical conditions as contributing factors in crash causation (Hanna 2009). It was found that about 1.3% of all crashes included in the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey (NMVCCS) were precipitated by driver reported medical emergencies and 84% of the drivers in crashes precipitated by medical emergencies experienced seizures ( epileptic and others), blackouts (non-diabetic), and diabetic reaction prior to the crashes. Drivers who had crashes precipitated by medical emergencies were more likely to sustain severe injury (28% for incapacitating injury and death for crashes with medical emergency;​ 11% for crashes without medical emergency). Thus, the premise exists that there may be benefit to identify the driver (and other occupants) of the vehicle as well as monitor their current health status through passive or active methods. This monitoring could take into account chronic conditions (such as bone mineral density) through driver input or through initial vehicle startup measurements which could be used to provide optimal comfort or safety system performance. Additional information about the driver’s health or behavioral conditions could be interpreted from blood pressure, heart and respiration rate, blood glucose levels and other physiological parameters and could lead to vehicle intervention in driving and/or alert EMS or police of the impending health condition that may affect driving or cause a crash. This monitoring could be done in many ways such as the recent rapid growth in wearable technology with the ability to pair to apps.

This paper will discuss issues related to driver behavioral and health monitoring and review potential technologies for monitoring and as well as methods for biometric identification. Recent publications on driver crash risk due to chronic and acute health conditions will be summarized. Finally, applications that may be associated with the monitoring will be discussed.