News

Jonas Bärgman - new co-chair for SAFER’s International Conference on Driver Distraction and Inattention

Jun, 29 2020

Since 2009, SAFER has hosted the International Conference on Driver Distraction and Inattention, DDI, which is the primary scientific conference in this field. Jonas Bärgman, Chalmers University of Technology, is now taking over the role of SAFER's scientific leader and co-chair for the conference.

Jonas is a Senior Researcher/Associate Professor in the Vehicle Safety Division (Crash Analysis and Prevention unit) in the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences at Chalmers University of Technology. He has worked in the SAFER environment, as well as in the automotive industry, for many years. Since 2002 Jonas has been conducting field research on driver distraction and inattention, including topics such as drowsiness, modeling of driver response processes to visual cues in critical situations, crash causation as it relates to driver glance behavior and secondary tasks, and how to assess the impact on safety of the combination of vehicle safety systems and/or driver (glance) behaviors.

Jonas’ comments on his new role:
"I am really looking forward to contributing to the DDI conference - specifically, taking on the challenges and opportunities of keeping it in line with the strategic needs of all stakeholders, while it continues to be the natural meeting place for world-leading researchers in the area of driver distraction and inattention. I will do my part to ensure DDI maintains its place as a high-quality and high-impact research arena for many years to come".

Jonas got his PhD degree at Chalmers University of Technology, with the thesis “Methods for analysis of naturalistic driving data in driver behavior research: From crash-causation analysis using expert assessment to quantitative assessment of the effect of driver behavior on safety using counterfactual simulation”.

The International Conference on Driver Distraction and Inattention (DDI) is the primary international event on this topic, attracting delegates from many countries. It is designed to bring participants – from government, industry and academia – up-to-date on current and recent developments and trends in the field of inattention and distraction in driving. Topics include theory, causation, measurement, impacts on driver performance and safety, and options for countermeasure development, e.g. education, training, laws, enforcement, design, licensing, research, etc. DDI is hosted and co-organised by the SAFER Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre at Chalmers in Sweden, the French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks (IFSTTAR), and the Australian Road Research Group (ARRB).

The next conference will be held in Lyon in October 2021. The conference was planned for the autumn 2020, but due to the pandemic, it will be postponed one year. Abstract submission will re-open for new abstracts soon. The theme of the conference will be Disconnected drivers during manual, assisted and automated driving.

We welcome Jonas to his new role as co-chair for DDI!