729 research outputs found
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Why Should I Use ADAS? Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and the Elderly: Knowledge, Experience and Usage Barriers
No full textA vast number of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are commercially available, all of which have the potential to increase the safety and comfort of driving a car. Due to age-specific performance limitations, older drivers could benefit a great deal from such in-vehicle technologies, provided that they are purchased and used. Based on the results of several market research studies, awareness of ADAS is significantly higher than their usage rate, which is still very low. To analyze the discrepancy between awareness and willingness to use ADAS, 32 older car drivers were surveyed in a semi-structured interview study. This paper examines the knowledge, experience, and barriers toward the use of ADAS in the elderly
Driving Hazard Detection with a Bioptic Telescope
No full textDriving by visually impaired people using bioptic telescopes is permitted in 43 states, yet their use remains controversial. One of the concerns is that the ring scotoma (blind area caused by the telescope magnification) may block the field-of-view, impacting detection of potential hazards when looking through the telescope. We evaluated the ability of the non-telescope eye to detect hazards in the field-of-view covered by the ring scotoma. Three participants watched a series of 54 real world driving videos that included 45 potential hazardous events and pressed a button as soon as a hazard was detected, in three conditions: just watching the videos, and while performing a reading task without or with a bioptic telescope. Results showed that all participants had either reduced detection rates or increased reaction times to hazards when performing the reading task with a bioptic telescope. These preliminary results suggest that attention demanding tasks and viewing through the telescope might impair hazard detection ability. Additional study is needed to fully understand the safety of bioptic driving
Performance Degradation Due to Automation in Texting while Driving
No full textPrevious research concerning the use of cell phones indicates that physical manipulation of the phone in conjunction with the cognitive need to compose a message together contribute to driving performance degradation. We have suggested that automated assistive text entry schemes such as Nokia’s T9 may mitigate some of these identified costs. In this work drivers in a simulator drove and texted using either the assistive T9 system or an unassisted multitap system. Contrary to previous pilot findings participants showed greater degradation of driving performance when using the automated assistive T9 than the unassisted multitap. Findings support the idea that cognitive composition of a message combined with entry interface automation contributed to driving performance degradation. It further implies that the costs of that automation may exceed the benefits
Comparison of Anticipatory Glancing and Risk Mitigation of Novice Drivers and Exemplary Drivers when Approaching Curves
No full textNovice drivers are overrepresented in run-off-the-road crashes. Indeed, the previous literature demonstrates that novice drivers are less likely to anticipate hazards or maintain attention to the forward roadway and as a result fail to mitigate hazards by slowing. This research was an effort to compare the linked hazard anticipation and hazard mitigation behaviors of novice drivers with exemplary experienced drivers at curves, locations that are known to have a greater crash risk. Each driver navigated three drives in a driving simulator, one of which included a moderate curve left and one of which included a tightening curve right. Experienced drivers made more anticipatory glances and began slowing significantly earlier in the curves than did novice drivers. However, novice drivers who anticipated hazards were much more likely to also mitigate the hazard. The use of these results in a PC-based driver hazard mitigation training program will be discussed
Who are the Users of Speed Regulation Assistance? Comparing Driver Characteristics of Casual and Intensive System Users
No full textSpeed regulation assistance can contribute to road safety provided that drivers use the systems on a regular basis. With the objective to gain knowledge about drivers who use Cruise Control and the Speed Limiter, a comparison of the characteristics of casual and intensive users was performed with survey data. The results show that gender and annual mileage play a role for the usage frequency of Cruise Control, whereas the usage frequency of the Speed Limiter depends on age. Consistent effects of the car use for business matters and the use of other invehicle technologies were found on the usage frequency of both systems. The predominant motive to reduce speeding found for both systems corresponds with the objective of speed regulation assistance as a safety measure. It was complemented with a comfort benefit perceived by Cruise Control users
Factors Affecting Glance Behavior when Interacting with In-Vehicle Devices: Implications from a Simulator Study
No full textThis study examined the effects of text entry and reading on drivers’ eye glance behavior, as influenced by text length and presence of ambient text (i.e., text around targeted text). A simulator study was conducted with 28 drivers. The findings showed that text entry tasks required longer eyes-off-road (EOR) time than text reading tasks. The presence of ambient text also increased the total EOR time for text reading. Tasks with shorter text required shorter individual glances, but even the shortest text entry tasks resulted in long glances for those who entered text in large chunks. Thus, shortening the text length alone may not ensure safe glance behavior and other countermeasures may need to be considered
Looming Auditory and Vibrotactile Collision Warning for Safe Driving
No full textLooming auditory warning signals (that is, signals whose intensity increases over time) have proven to be particularly effective in terms of reducing a driver’s brake reaction times (BRTs) to impending collisions, and are also associated with very low false alarm rates. We report two experiments designed to further investigate how the presentation of looming auditory warnings with increasing frequency or increasing spatial extent would compare to those with increasing intensity. A third experiment was conducted in order to evaluate the potential efficacy of presenting looming warnings to drivers in another modality, namely via vibrotactile signals. Participants’ speeded BRTs to potential collision events following the presentation of various warning signals in a simulated car following scenario were measured. While both looming frequency and spatial warnings were effective in terms of speeding the driver’s responses to critical driving events, the magnitude of the benefit resembled that of a typical nonlooming constant intensity warning. Looming intensity warnings outperformed their looming frequency counterparts in terms of facilitating drivers’ collision avoidance responses. As for vibrotactile warnings, the results revealed that looming vibrotactile stimuli did not offer any additional benefits over and above the other non-looming vibrations tested in the study. The implications of these findings for collision warning systems design are discussed
The Influence of Passengers on Driving in Young Drivers with Varying Levels of Experience
No full textYoung drivers are at disproportionate risk of collision. It is unclear whether it is age or lack of driving experience that is the problem because age and experience are confounded in most studies (experienced drivers are typically much older). This study focused on drivers who were about the same age: all within the critical first years of skill development. We compared drivers just starting to drive (learner’s license) with those with a full license. Young drivers are especially at risk when driving with passengers. Consequently, we were interested in how the ability to drive with passengers changes in these first years. Driving performance was measured in a driving simulator when the passenger was absent (Absent condition), and when there was a passenger who was either asking the driver questions or was silent (Talking and Silent conditions). As predicted, the experienced young drivers had lower hazard response times and fewer collisions. Similarly, as predicted, performance was worse in the Talking condition, insofar as more drivers missed their turnoff in the way-finding task (where they were required to arrive at a certain destination using signs and landmarks). However, there were also interactive effects of experience and condition. In-vehicle conversation had an especially negative effect on the least experienced drivers, producing more collisions. Conversely, the more experienced young drivers sped up when they were driving with a passenger who talked with them. There was little difference between Silent and Absent conditions for all measures. This suggests in-vehicle conversation may be the critical factor
Effect of Driving Experience on Change Detection Based on Target Relevance and Size
No full textEarlier studies that investigated the effects of driving experience and target safety relevance on change detection have produced conflicting results. Using a flicker change detection task to investigate the effect of driving experience on the ability to detect changes in objects that vary in safety relevance and size, the present study attempted to clarify some controversies by addressing three important methodological issues. The data showed that experienced drivers exhibited more efficient selection strategies than novice drivers and thus may have more spare resources to analyze less relevant objects in the driving environment. Selection strategies for relevant information appear to be sensitive to object size whereas selection of irrelevant information is downgraded comparatively and unaffected by size. Findings are discussed as they relate to theoretical and practical implications
Predicting Older Adults’ On-Road Driving Performance
No full textWe examined the predictive utility of the Roadwise Review and the Hazard Perception Test on a standardized driving assessment using both conventional and alternative scoring criteria in a sample of health older adults (N = 57). Our results indicate that both tests can predict passing or failing the road evaluation. The Hazard Perception Test was more consistent in predicting total points and hazardous errors in on-road performance. Future research should examine the predictive validity of these tests in cognitively impaired drivers