Rear-end collisions account for almost 30% of automotive crashes. Rear-end collision avoidance systems (RECASs) may offer a promising approach to help drivers avoid these crashes. Two experiments performed using a high-fidelity motion-based driving simulator examined driver responses to evaluate the efficacy of a RECAS. The first experiment showed that early warnings helped distracted drivers r...

The crash risk associated with cell phone use while driving is a contentious issue. Many states are introducing Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) that may be accessed with cell phones while driving (e.g., 511 Traveler Information Services). In these contexts, there is a need for relevant research to determine the risk of cell phone use. This study compared driver performance while co...

Untilfullautonomyisachievedincars,driverswillstillbeexpectedtotakeovercontrolofdriving, andcriticalwarningswillbeessential.Thispaperpresentsacomparisonofabstractversuslanguagebasedmultimodalwarningssignifyinghandoversofcontrol inautonomouscars.Whileusingan autonomouscarsimulator,participantsweredistractedfromtheroadbyplayingagameonatab...

Motor vehicle crashes, the leading cause of teendeaths in the United States, pose amajor public health threat for teen drivers, their passengers, and others on the road.1 Yet only one implemented interventionhasproveneffective in reducing fatal teen crashes—3-stage graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems.2 Recognizing that the first 6 months of solo driving pose thehighest crash risk, GDL rest...

The crash risk in tunnels is lower than on the open road network, but the consequences of a crash are often severe. Proper tunnel design is one measure to reduce the likelihood of crashes, and the objective of this work is to investigate how driving performance is influenced by design factors, and whether there is an interaction with secondary task load. Twenty-eight drivers participated in the...

Distraction and inattention are considered to be very important and prevalent factors in the causation of road accidents. There have been many recent research studies which have attempted to understand the circumstances under which a driver becomes distracted or inattentive and how distraction/inattention can be prevented. Both factors are thought to have become more important in recent times p...

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) is an electronic system that allows the vehicle to slow while approaching another vehicle and accelerate again to the preset speed when traffic is cleared. It also warns the driver and/or applies brake support if there is a high risk of a collision. The project aim is to design a GPS equipped ACC system that (apart from performing normal ACC functions) slows down t...

Driver distraction contributes to approximately 43% of motor-vehicle crashes and 27% of near-crashes. Rapidly developing in-vehicle technology and electronic devices place additional demands on drivers, which might lead to distraction and diminished capacity to perform driving tasks. This situation threatens safe driving. Technology that can detect and mitigate distraction by alerting drivers c...

Distracted driving includes the following: 1. Any behavior that takes the driver’s eyes off the road (visual distraction). 2. Any behavior that takes the driver’s hands off the steering wheel (manual distraction). 3. Anything that takes the driver’s mind off driving (cognitive distraction). One of the most common forms of distracted driving for teens today is cell phones. Currently, 77% of driv...

OBJECTIVE Based on Posner's (1994) model of attentional functions, the relationship between age and personal proneness to attention-related errors while driving and the functioning of the 3 attentional networks were explored by means of attentional behavioral measures and self-report data. METHODS A sample of 55 drivers was drawn from the general population of Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Arg...