Road-to-Lab: Validation of the Static Load Test for Predicting On-Road Driving Performance While Using Advanced In-Vehicle Information and Communication Devices

Abstract

Summary: Information, communication, and navigation devices need to be evaluated for ease-of-use and safety while driving. Lab tests, if validated, can evaluate prototype designs faster, more economically, and earlier than on-road tests. The Static Load Test was evaluated for its ability to predict on-road driver performance while using in-vehicle devices. In this test, participants perform various in-vehicle tasks in a lab while viewing a videotaped road scene on a monitor, tapping a brake pedal when a central or peripheral light is observed. For the on-road comparison test, the device, tasks, and lights are the same, but the participants also drive the vehicle while performing the tasks and responding to the lights. In both the lab and road tests, ten driver performance variables were measured. Our goal was to produce a linear model to predict an on-road variable from the lab data with low residual error, high percent variance explained, and few errors in classifying tasks as meeting or not meeting on-road driver performance criteria. Separate test data from a replicated Static Load Test at an independent lab were used to further validate the models. The results indicate a simple, inexpensive, and low-fidelity Static Load Test can accurately predict a number of on-road driver performance variables suitable for assessing the safety and ease-of-use of advanced in-vehicle devices while driving.

Validation of the Static Load Test for Event Detection During Hands-Free Conversation

“…This correlation is higher than found in prior studies of event detection RT (Angell et al, 2002(Angell et al, , 2006Young et al 2005) -though prior studies examined broader sets of tasks with more variation in task type. Nonetheless, for the first time, the ESLT brings lab-to-road correlations of RTs to the strong levels found for major driver workload variables such as eyesoff-road time (Angell et al, 2002(Angell et al, , 2006Young et al, 2005). Thus, the ESLT offers promise as a laboratory surrogate for event detection measures as well as driver workload variables.…”

“…(Missed lights were excluded from the RT means, but there were so few missed lights that their exclusion did not influence the results.) We employed simple linear regression and correlation methods, as per our earlier studies validating lab-road correspondence (Angell et al, 2002(Angell et al, , 2006Young et al, 2005). A Pearson correlation coefficient was formed across the paired task means for lab and road.…”

“…The first two authors and colleagues previously developed a simple low-fidelity simulator termed the Static Load Test (SLT) (Angell et al, 2002;Young et al, 2005). It enhanced the Peripheral Detection Task (PDT) (e.g.…”

“…On-road RTs to a visual event for those same tasks and individuals were predicted at r = 0.72 (p < 0.05), but miss rates were not correlated (r = 0.5, n.s.). Young et al (2005) used a between-subjects design with different institutions and different event detection software for the lab and road tests, but with the same vehicles and tasks. They found no statistically significant correlations for event detection variables across the large number of tasks tested, using mean lab scores to predict 80 th percentile road scores.…”

Conversation Effects on Driving: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Reaction Times to Visual Events

“…The "load" paradigm (Young et al, 2005b) assessed the effects of conversation on visual event detection during simulated driving in behavioral labs, fMRI and MEG imaging centers, and actual driving on a closed road. Behavioral and imaging data were collected.…”