Longer-term effects of ADAS use on speed and headway control in drivers diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Objective: An advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) provided information about speed limits, speed, speeding, and following distance. Information was presented to the participants by means of a head-up display.

Methods: Effects of the information on speed and headway control were studied in a longer-term driving simulator study including 12 repeated measures spread out over 4 weeks. Nine healthy older drivers between the ages of 65 and 82 years and 9 drivers between the ages of 68 and 82 years diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) participated in the study. Within the 4 weeks, groups completed 12 consecutive sessions (10 with ADAS and 2 without ADAS) in a driving simulator.

Results: Results indicate an effect of ADAS use on performance. Removing ADAS after short-term exposure led to deterioration of performance in all speed measures in the group of drivers diagnosed with PD.

Conclusions: These results suggest that provision of traffic information was utilized by drivers diagnosed with PD in order to control their speed.