The Validity of Simulators in Studying Driving Behaviours

Hossein Rouzikhah, Mark King, Andry Rakotonirainy Centre forAccident Research and Road Safety Queensland (CARRS-Q), QUT email: h.rouzikhah@,qut.edu.au, [email protected], r.andrv(@qut.edu.au INTRODUCTION Driver simulators provide safe conditions to assess driver behaviour and provide controlled and repeatable environments for study [11. They are a promising research tool in terms of both prov¡ding safety and experimentally well controlled environments. There are wide ranges of driver simulators, from laptops to advanced technologies which are cont¡olled by several computers in a real car mounted on platforms with six degrees of fteedom of movement. Simulators can be classified into three levels; low, medium and high fidelity [2]. ln addition, the cost of simulators signifìcantly varies.