Three on-road studies were conducted to determine how headway maintenance and collision warning displays influence driver behavior. Visual perspective, visual perspective with a pointer, visual perspective combined with an auditory warning, discrete visual warning, and discrete auditory warning were assessed during both coupled headway and deceleration events. Results indicate that when drivers are provided with salient visual information regarding safe headways, they utilize the information and increase their headway when appropriate. Auditory warnings were less effective than visual warnings for increasing headways but may be helpful for improving reaction time during events that require deceleration. Drivers were somewhat insensitive to false alarm rates, at least during short-term use. Finally, and most important, driver headway maintenance increased by as much as 0.5 s when the appropriate visual display was used. However, a study to investigate the longterm effects of such displays on behavior is strongly recommended prior to mass marketing of headway maintenance/collision warning devices.
Our results show that immediate visual feedback for adolescents and cumulative video feedback for parents and adolescents during the early period of independent driving can have a dramatic influence on the rate of safety-relevant driving events. To the extent that such events are a proxy for crash risk, we suggest that feedback can enhance adolescent driving safety.
Objective: This naturalistic driving study investigated how drivers deploy visual attention in a partially automated vehicle. Background: Vehicle automation is rapidly increasing across vehicle fleets. This increase in automation will likely have both positive and negative consequences as drivers learn to use the new technology. Research is needed to understand how drivers interact with partially automated vehicle systems and what impact new technology has on driver attention. Method: Ten participants drove a Tesla Model S for 1 week during their daily commute on a stretch of busy interstate. Drivers were instructed to use Autopilot, a system that provides both lateral and longitudinal control, as much as they felt comfortable while driving on the interstate. Driver-facing video data were recorded and manually reduced to examine glance behavior. Results: Drivers primarily allocated their visual attention between the forward roadway (74% of glance time) and the instrument panel (13%). With partial automation engaged, drivers made longer single glances and had longer maximum total-eyes-off-road time (TEORT) associated with a glance cluster. Conclusion: These results provide a window into the nature of visual attention while driving with partial vehicle automation. The results suggest that drivers may be more willing to execute long, “outlier” glances and clusters of glances to off-road locations with partial automation. The findings highlight several important human factors considerations for partially automated vehicles.
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