Are Autonomous Vehicles the Solution to Drowsy Driving?

The estimated cost of drowsy driving exceeds $100 billion annually in the US alone. Initial Autonomous Vehicle (AV) literature discusses an opportunity to partially salvage financial and societal burdens in 93% of accidents which are caused by human error. It is often assumed that AVs are capable of continuous safe operation during cases of fall-asleep driving. However, the Dynamic Driving Task (DDT) rather than being suddenly eliminated, is incrementally simplified over time and fall-asleep episodes invariably increase alongside. This paper suggests some potential consequences for sleep-related road accidents in the context of AVs and identifies potential future areas of collaborative research between social and sleep scientists. Its concluding hypothesis is that whilst full-autonomy is likely to decrease the risk of fatigue-induced accidents, interim incremental innovations may increase this risk given the lethal combination of passive sleepiness and driver over-confidence.