As re what seems online to be paragraph 6, I'm assuming that a higher % of the listed trips w/in 15 mi and less minutes away from home are indicative? I get that more quick hard breaking is likely an indicator but it wasn't clear how these things were being interpreted.

@CC
'Quick hard braking' - not sure which way that would pan. Quick sharp braking could indicate fast cognitive ability and reflexes to an external event - or it could indicate the inability to perceive threats ahead on the road and braking at the last moment.

Also depends on where you are driving, Paris, Rome (always slamming on the brakes is the driving style!) or a quite rural road in England in the summertime!

Excluding demented city drivers, unexpected braking does tend to be a trait of older drives who are experiencing some cognitive decline, although at the same time it could be due to less practice and nervousness (many learner drivers do the same).

Short trips and more trips starting and ending at hope just correlate with retirement, which itself correlates with age. So all they found was that dementia correlates with advanced age. Who knew?

The increasing percentage of short trips seems to indicate that the drivers had some inkling of their reduced capacity. Or maybe just found the further destinations less enjoyable than they once did.

In this entire article you did not indicate how different driving behaviors were interpreted by the study. For example, one of the comments on this said that "quick hard braking" could go either way. Which way is it? Do the researchers feel that hard braking is bad and those doing it are have having cognitive issues? I really would like answers as to how they feel these various driving patterns reflect on each individuals mental abilities. Is this not what reporting is about? Why do you leave us hanging on how this information means anything?

Big Brother wants to take your license.

CC, I echo your concerns- hard braking is an easy variable to understand, the others seem quite opaque. Brian, your objections are duly noted and accepted.

I have a friend who had a stroke a couple of years ago, and was driving until quite recently. I observed, while riding as a passenger, that his perceptions of the traffic conditions had become limited. He was much more likely to accelerate suddenly, braked late and hard, and would occasionally drift into adjacent lanes. I was forced on occasion to criticize his driving when I felt that he was putting us into danger- as much as I dislike being a "backseat driver".

I do not believe that he should be driving anymore, and will tell him that when I get an opportunity.

I read the title as "Early signs of dementia can be detected by tracking driving accidents"

Could the same AI and observational techniques be used at the other end of the spectrum i.e. to improve detection of those young people who are most likely to engage in risky behaviour, in order to provide them with additional driver training to avoid accidents that flow from risky driving behaviour.
To a certain extent this is already being used by insurance companies with their reduced rates for drivers with black boxes that monitor speed, cornering, braking etc. Would the AI analysis even assist the black box predictive power?

I believe there is a pretty good correlation between hard braking and dementia. A decent driver without mental impairments manages to avoid hard brakes most of the time. If the study could compare drivers using the same roads, it would be more conclusive. Also, comparing the evolution of the same driver over time could identify trends that may indicate the mentioned conditions. I remember a relative of mine was an excellent driver in his fifties and in the meantime his driving style has worsened considerably, especially the hard brakes (he is in his seventies) and we suspect he may have early signs of dementia.