Perception of relative distance in a driving simulator^1,2

Abstract

The aim of this experiment was to test, in a driving simulator, how a subject can control his approach towards several simulated car-targets in different driving contexts. We assume that increasing complexity might influence driving performance according to the difficulty of perceiving distances properly. The subjects' first task consisted of placing their car at an equal distance between two preceding cars. In the second task, the subjects had to place their car level with the preceding car. The target cars were either static or running at 40 or 60 km / h. The results showed a more precise distance perception when the difficulty of the task decreased. In all conditions the subjects underestimated distances. Subjects were better at 60 km/ h than at 40 km/ h and the performance improved with smaller car distances. In conclusion, the alignment tasks produced better performances than the mid-distance tasks, as a consequence of their lower complexity. However, physical constraints due to the increase in velocity, as well as shorter distances between vehicles, improved performances.

Alternative Definitions of Passing Critical Gaps

“…They found that simulator drivers tend to underestimate distances. Similar results were reported by Baumberger et al (35) and Farah et al (36). The latter also reported that the mean remaining headway to the opposing vehicle at the end of the passing maneuver in the simulator was approximately half that observed in the field, indicating that drivers are willing to accept higher risks in the simulator.…”

Measuring drivers’ visual information needs during braking: A simulator study using a screen-occlusion method

“…Our hypothesis was that participants would brake longer and harder when the brake scene was occluded, because they had to rely on the perceived compressed distance at the start of the brake (consistent with Gilinsky's model of distance perception). Baumberger, Flückiger, Paquette, Bergeron, and Delorme (2005) showed that drivers underestimated the distance by about 5 m when asked to position their car at mid-distance between two other cars that were moving in the adjacent right lane of the driver. Distance underestimation has been found in other virtual environments as well, for a variety of measurement methods such as verbal reporting of absolute distance, triangulation by pointing/walking, perceptually-directed action, and perceived size judgment (Knapp & Loomis, 2004;Loomis & Philbeck, 2008).…”

Observation of risky driving behavior as a result of using in-vehicle technology in the Czech Republic

“…Generally, drivers tend to underestimate the distance to the car ahead of them (Baumberger, Flückiger, Paquette, Bergeron & Delorme, 2005), so they keep a longer distance than they would during manual driving. This finding seems to be less valid for driving while using CC, when they often kept short distances.…”