Factors to Consider When Designing Vehicles for Older Drivers

Abstract

As the Baby Boom generation gradually moves into its later years, that movement will become a Senior Boom that will have a dramatic effect upon the design of products entering the marketplace. To respond to this market, engineers and designers will require a good understanding and awareness of the changes that take place in vision and cognition as a result of the aging process, and how these changes affect the interaction of older adults with their vehicle systems such as controls and displays, mirrors, entry and exit, and lighting. This paper is an attempt to bring that understanding to the designer and engineer, as based upon current research.

The Potential for Advanced Vehicle Systems to Increase the Mobility of Elderly Drivers

“…If textual displays must be used, Hayes, Kurokowa, and Wierwille (1989) suggest that many performance problems can be eliminated by increasing the character size of textual labels. Yanik (1989) observes that for color displays, drivers had better visual responses to yellows, oranges, yellow-greens, and whites on contrasting backgrounds. Other studies involving older drivers' visual abilities include Mortimer (1989); Ranney and Simmons (1992); and Staplin and Lyles (1991 ).…”