Digital health technologies, diabetes, and driving (meet your new backseat driver)

Drivers with diabetes are at significantly greater risk for driver errors and vehicle crashes compared to the background population without diabetes. Hypoglycemia-associated cognitive impairment, which impairs domains critical to driving (e.g., attention, visual perception, psychomotor speed, and executive function), is a critical contributor to diabetes-related driving risk. Naturalistic driving studies, combined with continuous glucose monitors, have objectively linked glucose control to contemporaneous driver safety. In addition, advancements in vehicle technology offer innovative possibilities to use the vehicle as a diagnostic tool, capable of monitoring real-world health, behavior, and safety over extended time frames. Integration of biometrics and wearable sensor-generated data with vehicle systems has opened new avenues for interventions to enhance safety. Further research will be needed to determine how to safely and efficaciously integrate real-time driver-level data with in-vehicle monitoring systems to improve driving safety for people with diabetes.