Inconsistent by Design: A Systematic Review of Experimental Design Practices Across Impaired Driving Domains

Abstract

Impaired driving, including distraction, fatigue, and intoxication, leads to thousands of fatalities annually. Impairment detection and related assistive technologies are rapidly advancing, but their full potential remains unrealized. The inconsistent maturity of impairment research and anomalies within individual domains are key barriers, including variations in taxonomic characterization, experimental data-collection methodologies, and treatment of impairments across studies. We present a unified review of impairment studies, covering 91 studies across nine impairment domains coded on three dimensions: impairment induction methods, scenario hazards, and observable phenomena and metrics. Our key findings include: (1) a proposed performance-degradation vs. event-response paradigm for existing impairment domains, (2) a maturity framework along the three dimensions, and (3) an analysis of impairment research methodologies, revealing anomalies and gaps in the treatment of scenarios and metrics. We further propose recommendations for standardizing methodologies to support future cross-domain research and development of holistic detection and assistive systems.

23 pages, 1 figure. To be published in the 18th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (AutomotiveUI '26) September 20-23, 2026, Gothenburg, Sweden