Gautam Divekar

The effects of focused attention training on the duration of novice drivers' glances inside the vehicle.

Several studies have documented that the failure of drivers to attend to the forward roadway for a period lasting longer than 2–3 s is a major cause of highway crashes. Moreover, several studies have demonstrated that novice drivers are more likely to glance away from the roadway than the experienced drivers for extended periods when attempting to do a task inside the vehicle. The present study examines the efficacy of a PC-based training programme (FOrward Concentration and Attention Learning, FOCAL) designed to teach novice drivers not to glance away forthese extended periods of time. A FOCAL-trained group was compared with a placebo-trained group in an on-road test, and the FOCAL-trained group made significantly fewer glances away from the roadway that were more than 2 s than the placebo-trained group. Other measures indicated an advantage for the FOCAL-trained group as well. Statement of relevance: Distracted driving is increasingly a problem, as cell phones, navigation systems, and other in-vehicle devices are introduced into the cabin of the automobile. A training programme is described that has beentested on the open road and can reduce the behaviours that lead to crashes caused by the distracted driving.

The effect of male teenage passengers on male teenage drivers: findings from a driving simulator study.

Studies have shown that teenage drivers are less attentive, more frequently exhibit risky driving behavior, and have a higher fatal crash risk in the presence of peers. The effects of direct peer pressure and conversation on young drivers have been examined. Little is known about the impact on driving performance of the presence of a non-interacting passenger and subtle modes of peer influence, such as perceived social norms. The goal of this study was to examine if teenagers would engage in more risky driving practices and be less attentive in the presence of a passenger (vs. driving alone) as well as with a risk-accepting (vs. risk-averse) passenger. A confederate portrayed the passengers characteristics mainly by his non-verbal attitude. The relationship between driver characteristics and driving behavior in the presence of a passenger was also examined. Thirty-six male participants aged 16-17 years old were randomly assigned to drive with a risk-accepting or risk-averse passenger. Main outcomes included speed, headway, gap acceptance, eye glances at hazards, and horizontal eye movement. Driver characteristics such as tolerance of deviance, susceptibility to peer pressure, and self-esteem were measured. Compared to solo driving, the presence of a passenger was associated with significantly fewer eye glances at hazards and a trend for fewer horizontal eye movements. Contrary to the hypothesis, however, Passenger Presence was associated with waiting for a greater number of vehicles to pass before initiating a left turn. Results also showed, contrary to the hypothesis, that participants with the risk-accepting passenger maintained significantly longer headway with the lead vehicle and engaged in more eye glances at hazards than participants with the risk-averse passenger. Finally, when driving with the passenger, earlier initiation of a left turn in a steady stream of oncoming vehicles was significantly associated with higher tolerance of deviance and susceptibility to peer pressure, while fewer eye glances at hazards was linked to lower self-esteem. While the results of this study were mixed, they suggest that the presence of a teenage passenger can affect some aspects of teenage driver behavior even in the absence of overt pressure and distraction. Results are discussed in relation to theoretical concepts of social influence and social facilitation models.

Evaluation of Different Speech and Touch Interfaces to In-Vehicle Music Retrieval Systems

In-vehicle music retrieval systems are becoming more and more popular. Previous studies have shown that they pose a real hazard to drivers when the interface is a tactile one which requires multiple entries and a combination of manual control and visual feedback. Voice interfaces exist as an alternative. Such interfaces can require either multiple or single conversational turns. In this study, each of 17 participants between the ages of 18 and 30 years old was asked to use three different music retrieval systems (one with a multiple entry touch interface, the iPod, one with a multiple turn voice interface, interface B, and one with a single turn voice interface, interface C) while driving through a virtual world. Measures of secondary task performance, eye behavior, vehicle control, and workload were recorded. When compared with the touch interface, the voice interfaces reduced the total time drivers spent with their eyes off the forward roadway, especially in prolonged glances, as well as both the total number of glances away from the forward roadway and the perceived workload. Furthermore, when compared with driving without a secondary task, both voice interfaces did not significantly impact hazard anticipation, the frequency of long glances away from the forward roadway, or vehicle control. The multiple turn voice interface (B) significantly increased both the time it took drivers to complete the task and the workload. The implications for interface design and safety are discussed.

A simulator evaluation of the effects of attention maintenance training on glance distributions of younger novice drivers inside and outside the vehicle

Driver distraction inside and outside the vehicle is increasingly a problem, especially for younger drivers. In many cases the distraction is associated with long glances away from the forward roadway. Such glances have been shown to be highly predictive of crashes. Ideally, one would like to develop and evaluate a training program which reduced these long glances. Thus, an experiment was conducted in a driving simulator to test the efficacy of a training program, FOCAL, that was developed to teach novice drivers to limit the duration of glances that are inside the vehicle while performing an in-vehicle task, such as looking for a CD or finding the 4-way flashers. The test in the simulator showed that the FOCAL trained group performed significantly better than the placebo trained group on several measures, notably on the percentage of within-vehicle glances that were greater than 2, 2.5, and 3 s. However, the training did not generalize to glances away from the roadway (e.g., when drivers were asked to attend to a sign adjacent to the roadway, both trained and untrained novice drivers were equally likely to make especially long glances at the sign).

Effect of external distractions

Distractions are a major contributor to automobile crashes, almost one-third of which are thought to be caused by distractions external to the vehicle. Increasingly, external distractions include video billboards, marquees, and variable message signs placed above and beside the highway. It is known that distractions outside the vehicle, especially video billboards, have effects on various vehicle control measures, such as the minimum headway distance to a braking lead vehicle, and that novice drivers and experienced drivers spend equally long times looking at distractions outside the vehicle. In contrast, experienced drivers are much less likely than novice drivers to take long glances at distractions inside the vehicle. This finding raises two questions. First, why are experienced drivers taking such long glances at an external distraction when they are not willing do so when a secondary task arises inside the vehicle? Second, if experienced drivers are sacrificing some of their ability to monitor visible hazards in the roadway ahead, are they sacrificing even more of their ability to anticipate unseen hazards? An experiment to evaluate these two questions had novice and experienced drivers perform an external search task (similar to reading a digital billboard) while driving in a simulator. Monitored throughout were eye movements of the participants and measures of the vehicle, such as lane position and speed. The major finding was that the long glances of both experienced and novice drivers came at the cost of identifying potential hidden hazards and seeing exposed moving threats.

New Measure of Inattentiveness to Forward Roadway

Long glances inside a vehicle when driving are predictive of crashes on the road. Laboratory studies have shown that novice drivers are more likely to make such long in-vehicle glances than are more experienced drivers. Moreover, a training program for novice drivers, FOCAL, has been shown to reduce the number of long glances. However, it is not clear what the best measure is for assessing how risky the pattern of glances is. This paper proposes a new measure, summed excess glance durations, to assess the glance behavior in an interval of time in which the participant is attempting to do a task within the vehicle while driving. This measure gives a plausible estimate of the likelihood of a crash and is not subject to the same problems as are extant measures. Moreover, the measure can be used to estimate the threshold above which glance durations become unsafe, confirming previous, complementary, work on a driving simulator. Although the analyses suggest that approximately a 1.5-s threshold for evaluating excess glances appears to be best, any excess glance threshold between 1.0 and 2.5 s is a good discriminator between novice and experienced drivers. The authors also discuss how one can bridge the gap between laboratory observations and crash rates and argue that the threshold value for predicting crash rates is likely to depend on driving situations. The authors argue that the measure proposed, when suitably adjusted for driving conditions, is likely to be an excellent predictor of crash rates.

Predicting Route Choices of Drivers Given Categorical and Numerical Information on Delays Ahead: Effects of Age, Experience, and Prior Knowledge

In recent years there has been a considerable increase in the systems used to provide real-time traffic information to motorists. Examples of such systems include dynamic message signs and 511 travel information systems. However, such systems can be used to reduce congestion—one of their primary purposes—only if one can predict the route choices of drivers as a function of the information displayed. This simulator study looks at the diversion pattern that occurs when delays are reported ahead on the main route and how these diversion patterns vary as a function of delay times (for numerical delay signs), message content (for categorical delay signs), use of 511, and drivers’ familiarity with the alternative route travel times across two different age groups. For numerical delay signs, the study shows that one can reliably predict the diversion frequencies at the different delays and across the different ages; then it is possible for traffic engineers to know ahead of time how likely it is for drivers to take an alternative route. For categorical delay signs, the findings indicate that drivers’ knowledge of the alternative route travel time affects the choices of older versus younger or middle-aged adults differently. When the times are not known, the two groups behave differently; when the times are known, the groups behave similarly. This finding suggests that traffic engineers should try where possible to present the alternative route travel times as well as the delays on the main route.