United States Department of Transportation
i
Drivers' Activities and Information Needs in an Automated Highway System
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1996-10-01
[PDF-1.30 MB]
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Abstract:These experiments investigated what drivers do when traveling under automated control, and what information they would like to have available during that time. Eighteen drivers ages 25 through 34 and 18 drivers age 65 or older participated in the first two experiments; 6 drivers participated in the third experiment. All experiments were conducted in the Iowa Driving Simulator. The driver drove the simulator vehicle onto a freeway and then moved to the center lane; following a period of manual driving, control was transferred to the AHS, and the driver traveled under automated control for at least 34 min. In the first two experiments, which were run together and consisted of a single trial for each driver, driver activities were videotaped for later analysis. In addition, a laptop computer was mounted near the driver that offered several types of information. Drivers were given a questionnaire after the experiment to allow ratings of and comments on the various information types. In the third experiment, each driver participated in eight trials, once each in the morning and afternoon on 4 days, simulating a commuter experience. Driver activities were again videotaped for later analysis, but there was no laptop computer available. RESULTS: In the two noncommuter experiments, drivers undertook a variety of activities, though despite pre-experiment encouragement to do so, almost no one brought any materials with them. Thus, the activities included such things as reading the strip map that was in the car, talking to the experimenter, adjusting the radio, and so on. The most frequent activity was using the laptop computer. A third of the drivers closed their eyes at least once for 5 or more consecutive seconds, with averages of 5.7 and 7.1 times for males and females, respectively. Regarding the information available on the laptop computer, drivers found information about the next exit to be least useful. Information about the driver's current location and the traffic ahead were more useful than next exit information. And information about time to the destination was selected significantly more frequently than the other three types of information. Drivers offered several suggestions for additional information they would like to have available during a trip on the AHS. In the commuter experiment, it was noted, however, that only two drivers brought something to do on the next-to-last trial, a somewhat surprising result in light of the fact that the drivers clearly knew by then that they would have almost half an hour during which they did not have any driving-related responsibilities.
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