Should Steering Settings be Changed by the Driver or by the Vehicle Itself?

Introduction: Cars are increasingly computerized, and vehicle settings such as steering gain (SG) can now be altered during driving. However, it is unknown whether transitions in SG should be adaptable (i.e., triggered by driver input) or adaptive (i.e., triggered automatically). We examined this question for road segments expected to require...

Do sport modes cause behavioral adaptation?

A key question in transportation research is whether drivers show behavioral adaptation, that is, slower or faster driving, when new technology is introduced into the vehicle. This study investigates behavioral adaptation in response to the sport mode, a technology that alters the vehicle's auditory, throttle-mapping, power-steering, and...

Multivariate and location-specific correlates of fuel consumption: A test track study

Current predictors of fuel consumption are typically based on computer simulations or data collections in real traffic, where the route and vehicle type are not under the researcher's control. Here, we predicted fuel consumption using test track data, an approach that allowed for location-specific predictions. Ninety-one drivers drove a total...

How do driving modes affect the vehicle’s dynamic behaviour? Comparing Renault’s Multi-Sense sport and comfort modes during on-road naturalistic driving

Several modern vehicles provide the option to select a driving mode. However, the literature contains no empirical studies that investigate how driving modes affect the vehicle's dynamic behaviour in regular on-road driving. We examined for which CAN-bus signals the differences between Renault's Multi-Sense® comfort and sport modes are most...

What determines drivers’ speed?: A replication of three behavioural adaptation experiments in a single driving simulator study

We conceptually replicated three highly cited experiments on speed adaptation, by measuring drivers’ experienced risk (galvanic skin response; GSR), experienced task difficulty (self-reported task effort; SRTE), and safety margins (time-to-line-crossing; TLC) in a single experiment. The three measures were compared using a nonparametric index...

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...