Car-following behavioural adaptation when driving next to automated vehicles on a dedicated lane on motorways: A driving simulator study in the Netherlands

Automated vehicles (AVs) are expected to improve traffic flow efficiency and safety. The deployment of AVs on motorways is expected to be the first step in their implementation. One of the main concerns is how human drivers will interact with AVs. Dedicating specific lanes to AVs have been suggested as a possible solution. However, there is...

Driving examiners’ views on data-driven assessment of test candidates: An interview study

Vehicles are increasingly equipped with sensors that capture the state of the driver, the vehicle, and the environment. These developments are relevant to formal driver testing, but little is known about the extent to which driving examiners would support the use of sensor data in their job. This semi-structured interview study examined the...

The Persuasive Automobile: Design and Evaluation of a Persuasive Lane-Specific Advice Human Machine Interface

Traffic congestion is a major societal challenge. By advising drivers on the optimal lane to drive, traffic flow can be improved, and congestion reduced. In this paper we describe the development of a lane-specific advice Human Machine Interface (HMI). Persuading drivers to follow an advice that is beneficial to the traffic situation, but may...

Modelling overtaking strategy and lateral distance in car-to-cyclist overtaking on rural roads: A driving simulator experiment

The involvement of cyclists in road crashes has not been decreasing with the same magnitude as the involvement of other road users. In particular, the interactions between cyclists and motorized traffic can lead to high-severity crashes. To improve the safety of these interactions, a thorough understanding of road user behaviour is first needed....

Adaptive automation: automatically (dis)engaging automation during visually distracted driving

Background<br/>Automated driving is often proposed as a solution to human errors. However, fully automated driving has not yet reached the point where it can be implemented in real traffic. This study focused on adaptively allocating steering control either to the driver or to an automated pilot based on momentary driver distraction measured...

A toolbox for automated driving on the STISIM driving simulator

Driving simulators have been used since the beginning of the 1930s to assist researchers in assessing driver behaviour without putting the driver in harm’s way. The current manuscript describes the implementation of a toolbox for automated driving research on the widely used STISIM platform. The toolbox presented in this manuscript allows...

Does haptic steering guidance instigate speeding? A driving simulator study into causes and remedies

An important issue in road traffic safety is that drivers show adverse behavioral adaptation (BA) to driver assistance systems. Haptic steering guidance is an upcoming assistance system which facilitates lanekeeping performance while keeping drivers in the loop, and which may be particularly prone to BA.<br/>Thus far, experiments on haptic...

Relationships between years of licensure and driving style measured with a short simulator-based test (N = 650)

Young and inexperienced drivers are over-involved in traffic violations and car crashes. There is a paucity of research on the use of driving simulators for assessing driving style. This study investigated the relationships between years of licensure and driving style measured with a short simulator-based test. At a motor show, 650 licensed...

Blind driving by means of a steering-based predictor algorithm

The aim of this work was to develop and empirically test different algorithms of a lane-keeping assistance system that supports drivers by means of a tone when the car is about to deviate from its lane. These auditory assistance systems were tested in a driving simulator with its screens shut down, so that the participants used auditory...

Concurrent audio-visual feedback for supporting drivers at intersections: A study using two linked driving simulators

A large portion of road traffic crashes occur at intersections for the reason that drivers lack necessary visual information. This research examined the effects of an audio-visual display that provides real-time sonification and visualization of the speed and direction of another car approaching the crossroads on an intersecting road. The...

Towards Real-Time, Nonintrusive Estimation of Driver Workload in a Simulated Environment

The aim of this research is to work towards building an open-source, platform-independent algorithm capable of predicting driver workload in real-time and in a non-intrusive way. To work towards a system that can also be implemented in on-road settings, we aimed at using off-the-shelf, non-intrusive sensors that could be implemented into the...

Impact of distracting activities and drivers’ cognitive failures on driving performance

The rapid increase in the availability of smartphones and other infotainment devices, and their widespread use while driving, contributes significantly to car crash rates. Understanding of the impact of distracting activities on drivers’ behavior is essential in order to support the development of effective technology and policy solutions to...

Changes of driving performance and gaze behavior of novice drivers during a 30-min simulator-based training

Previous research has shown that novice drivers have underdeveloped vehicle control skills and visual search strategies that differ from those of experienced drivers. However, little is known about how novices’ driving performance and gaze behavior jointly change over the course of practice. In this paper, we investigated changes in driving...

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

It is commonly accepted that vision plays an important role in car braking, but it is unknown how people brake in the absence of visual information. In this simulator study, we measured drivers’ braking behaviour while they had to stop their car at designated positions on the road. The access to visual information was manipulated by occluding...

Effects of adaptive cruise control and highly automated driving on workload and situation awareness: A review of the empirical evidence

Adaptive cruise control (ACC), a driver assistance system that controls longitudinal motion, has been introduced in consumer cars in 1995. A next milestone is highly automated driving (HAD), a system that automates both longitudinal and lateral motion. We investigated the effects of ACC and HAD on drivers’ workload and situation awareness...