Alcohol impairs driver attention and prevents compensatory strategies.

While the negative effects of alcohol on driving performance are undisputed, it is unclear how driver attention, eye movements and visual information sampling are affected by alcohol consumption. A simulator study with 35 participants was conducted to investigate whether and how a driver's level of attention is related to self-paced non-driving related task (NDRT)-engagement and tactical aspects of undesirable driver behaviour under increasing levels of breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) up to 1.0 ‰.

Eye Tracking in Driver Attention Research-How Gaze Data Interpretations Influence What We Learn.

Eye tracking (ET) has been used extensively in driver attention research. Amongst other findings, ET data have increased our knowledge about what drivers look at in different traffic environments and how they distribute their glances when interacting with non-driving related tasks. Eye tracking is also the go-to method when determining driver distraction via glance target classification.

A Review of Occlusion as a Tool to Assess Attentional Demand in Driving.

Objective: The aim of this review is to identify how visual occlusion contributes to our understanding of attentional demand and spare visual capacity in driving and the strengths and limitations of the method.

Background: The occlusion technique was developed by John W. Senders to evaluate the attentional demand of driving.

Truck drivers' interaction with cyclists in right-turn situations.

One of the more hazardous situations for a bicyclist is to go straight on in an intersection where a motor vehicle is turning right, and especially so when heavy vehicles are involved. The aim of this study was to investigate truck drivers' speed choice, gaze behaviour and interaction strategies in relation to vulnerable road users (VRU) when turning right in signalised and non-signalised intersections. Truck drivers experienced (n = 14) or inexperienced (n = 15) with urban traffic drove a 15 km long test route in an urban environment.

Attentional Demand as a Function of Contextual Factors in Different Traffic Scenarios.

Objective: To assess the attentional demand of different contextual factors in driving.

Background: The attentional demand on the driver varies with the situation. One approach for estimating the attentional demand, via spare capacity, is to use visual occlusion.

On the Difference Between Necessary and Unnecessary Glances Away From the Forward Roadway: An Occlusion Study on the Motorway.

Objective: The present study strove to distinguish traffic-related glances away from the forward roadway from non-traffic-related glances while assessing the minimum amount of visual information intake necessary for safe driving in particular scenarios.

Background: Published gaze-based distraction detection algorithms and guidelines for distraction prevention essentially measure the time spent looking away from the forward roadway, without incorporating situation-based attentional requirements. Incorporating situation-based attentional requirements would entail an approach that not only considers the time spent looking elsewhere but also checks whether all necessary information has been sampled.

Performance of an Additional Task During Level 2 Automated Driving: An On-Road Study Comparing Drivers With and Without Experience With Partial Automation.

Objective: To investigate the influence of prior experience with Level 2 automation on additional task performance during manual and Level 2 partially automated driving.

Background: Level 2 automation is now on the market, but its effects on driver behavior remain unclear. Based on previous studies, we could expect an increase in drivers' engagement in secondary tasks during Level 2 automated driving, but it is yet unknown how drivers will integrate all the ongoing demands in such situations.

Reduced Attention Allocation during Short Periods of Partially Automated Driving: An Event-Related Potentials Study.

Research on partially automated driving has revealed relevant problems with driving performance, particularly when drivers' intervention is required (e.g., take-over when automation fails).

Changes in glance behaviour when using a visual eco-driving system - A field study.

While in-vehicle eco-driving support systems have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save fuel, they may also distract drivers, especially if the system makes use of a visual interface. The objective of this study is to investigate the visual behaviour of drivers interacting with such a system, implemented on a five-inch screen mounted above the middle console. Ten drivers participated in a real-world, on-road driving study where they drove a route nine times (2 pre-baseline drives, 5 treatment drives, 2 post-baseline drives).

Vehicle-based studies of driving in the real world: the hard truth?

Real-world studies of driving behaviour and safety have face validity and have the distinct advantage of focussing on driving in its natural habitat. But their very naturalism can lead to problems with confounds and with noise in the data. This paper reviews the three major categories of on-road studies - controlled observation, field operational tests and naturalistic driving studies - and discusses the major applications of each study type.

Effects of electronic billboards on driver distraction.

Objective: There is an increase in electronic advertising billboards along major roads, which may cause driver distraction due to the highly conspicuous design of the electronic billboards. Yet limited research on the impact of electronic billboards on driving performance and driver behavior is available. The Swedish Transport Administration recently approved the installation of 12 electronic billboards for a trial period along a 3-lane motorway with heavy traffic running through central Stockholm, Sweden.

Truck drivers' opinion on road safety in Tanzania--a questionnaire study.

Objective: Even though the traffic fatality risk (fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants) in Tanzania is quite low, the fatality rate (fatalities per 10,000 vehicles) is one of the highest in the world. With increasing vehicle density this means that the number of people dying in traffic will increase dramatically in the near future. Therefore, it is important to implement measures to increase traffic safety as soon as possible, and in order to be able to do this in an efficient way, it is important to investigate where the main problems lie.

Measuring driver impairments: sleepiness, distraction, and workload.

Snow was falling heavily when Sarah was driving on a slippery road to her cousin's country cottage. It was dark outside, and the visibility was poor. She had planned to arrive before sunset, but the rental service had made a mistake, and it took hours before she got her rental car at the airport.

The impact of tunnel design and lighting on the performance of attentive and visually distracted drivers.

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 simulator study.

Predicting visual distraction using driving performance data.

Behavioral variables are often used as performance indicators (PIs) of visual or internal distraction induced by secondary tasks. The objective of this study is to investigate whether visual distraction can be predicted by driving performance PIs in a naturalistic setting. Visual distraction is here defined by a gaze based real-time distraction detection algorithm called AttenD.

Effects of road surface appearance and low friction warning systems on driver behaviour and confidence in the warning system.

Warning systems for slippery road conditions are a potential newcomer among driver support systems. A total of 75 participants drove in a high-fidelity driving simulator on roads with both visible and invisible ice, to investigate to which extent drivers rely on a low friction warning system. Three experimental groups with different versions of a low friction warning system and a control group without warning system were compared.