Nomadic devices in the vehicle environment: planning of field operation tests in Europe

The market for the Nomadic Devices, such as on-board navigation devices and smart phones, integrated to road vehicles is increasing rapidly today. While providing uselful services for travellers, at the same time, these devices may introduce significant usability and distraction problems, jeopardizing their safety as the devices are not usually specially designed for the vehicle context. Consequently, there is a need to study the impacts of such devices by Field Operational Tests (FOT). TeleFOT (Field Operational Tests of Aftermarket and Nomadic Devices in Vehicles), is a European Commission co-funded integrated project aiming to assess the impacts of aftermarket and nomadic devices used in vehicles for driver support and to raise wide awareness of the functions and potential these devices offer, by implementing Field Operational Tests. To do so it will build, mobilise and integrate European test communities for long term testing and assessment of driver support functions through aftermarket and nomadic devices. It will also work on the related methodological framework.