Poster 18: Keeping Drivers Alert When Self-Driving: What Can a Driving Simulator Teach Us?
(Room Palms Ballroom)
16 Jul 19
5:30 PM
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7:00 PM
Our study consisted in bringing 60 participants ages 16 to 84 to a High Fidelity Driving Simulator to expose them in a safe way to self-driving technology. We collected their knowledge and impressions of self-driving at the beginning of the study. We then introduced them to the driving simulator. We analyzed their reactions to an advert event when the autopilot failed at a highway exit forcing them to take over in manual mode to avoid a crash. Their level of alertness and crash rate is presented. We found that 21% of drivers had become somewhat lethargic by the time the event happened. They did not react at all to the event. Even though the event was extremely progressive (blocked exit could be seen from far) and participants had 6.2 seconds to avoid the crash, 43% drivers crashed. All participants with a reaction time less than 4 seconds were able to avoid the crash.