Elizabeth Mazzae - NHTSA Driver Distraction Research on the NADS - 2003 SAE Government/Industry Meeting SLIDE 1: DRIVER DISTRACTION RESEARCH ON THE NATIONAL ADVANCED DRIVING SIMULATOR (NADS) - Elizabeth N. Mazzae Nathional Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA Vehicle Research and Test Center East Liberty, Ohio SLIDE 2: RESEARCH TEAM NHTSA HQ - Mike Goodman NHTSA Vehicle Research & Test Center (VRTC) - NHTSA: Liz Mazzae - TRC: Tom Ranney NADS Staff (University of Iowa) - Yiannis Papelis, Ginger Watson, NADS staff SLIDE 3: NADS DRIVER DISTRACTION RESEARCH PROGRAM - NHTSA has ongoing studies addressing driver distraction issues - Unique capabilities of NADS will be used to address questions that cannot be addressed in on-road experimentation SLIDE 4: NADS DRIVER DISTRACTION RESEARCH PROGRAM Projects - wireless phones - in-vehicle information systems & electronics - cognitive distraction SLIDE 5: RESEARCH OBJECTIVES - Wireless phone research is currently underway 3 wireless phone distraction studies: 1. examine effects of wireless phone interface on driving performance 2. effects of conversation characteristics on driving performance 3. Assess drivers' willingness to engage in wireless calls under a variety of driving conditions SLIDE 6: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 1 - Focus: phone interface type effects - evaluate the assumption that hands-free activity is safer than hand-held activity [ecamine dialing, talking, answering] - simulate voice communications in variety of common driving situations with varying task demand SLIDE 7: NADS Wireless Phone Study 1 Hand-Held (HH) - manual dialing & answering, HH talking Headset Hands-free - manual dialing & answering - hands-free talking with headset Voice Dialing Speaker Hands-Free - voice digit dialing, manual answering - hands-free talking with speaker SLIDE 8: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 1 Experimental Design - Independent variables: * phone interface, HH, headset, HF speaker W/voice digit dialing * age: 18-25, 30-45, 50-60 - 54 subjects SLIDE 9: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 1 Dependent measures: - vehicle-based: speed, accelerations - driver inputs: steering, braking - task-based - glance behavior SLIDE 10: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 1 Procedure: - subjects drive route containing traffic & events - conversations to consist of verbal task performance (Baddeley task) - Monetary incentives establish priorities with respect to primary and secondary tasks - call receipt/placement is prompted - two road types: freeway and arterial * separate data collections * no road type comparisons SLIDES 11: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 1 Freeway Driving task events - car following: [dep.measures] speed, coherence, glance behavior, lane position, steering - responding to lead vehicle cut-in or brake: [dep.measures] brake reaction time, minimum TTC - merging: [dep.measures] TTC, speed, success of maneuver SLIDE 12: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 1 Arterial Driving task events - responding to traffic signals: [dep.measures] reaction time, correct stop/go decision - responding to cars turning in front: [dep.measures] reaction time, crash avoidance - identification of specified visual targets: [dep.measures] reaction time, % correct detected, glance behavior SLIDE 13: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 1 Examine driver behavior, performance, and responses to events by: - dialing method - conversation method (hand-held, headset, speaker) - cross comparisons - baseline vs. answering, dialing, and conversing SLIDE 14-15: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 1 Sample hypotheses Hand-held conversation will: - degrade driving performance more than hands-freee conversation. - divert more attenional resources away from driving than hands-free conversation. Manual dialing will: - degrade driving performance more than hands-free dialing - divert more attentional resources away from driving than hands-free dialing Drivers in the "younger" or "older" age group will exhibit worse driving performace during wireless phone task components than will drivers in the "middle" age range Int he "voice digit dialing hands-free" condition, drivers will glance away from the forward roadway more than they will in the hand-held or headset hands-free conditions SLIDE 16: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 1 - freeway pilot study has been completed - freeway main experiment underway - arterial pilot and main experiments to occur in summer 2003 SLIDE 17: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 2 Focus: conversation content - examine whether dimensions of conversation affects distraction potential while driving - simulate voice communication in a variety of common driving situations with varying task demand - both freeway and arterial road types SLIDE 18: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 2 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN - Independent variables * conversation content * emotional intensity * conversation duration * wireless phone experience * age - 54 subjects 1 wireless phone interface call receipt/placement is prompted monetary incentives establish priorities with respect to primary and secondary tasks SLIDE 19: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 2 Sample hypotheses - driver distraction will.... * increase as drivers become engaged conversations of high complexity * increase with increasing conversation intensity * increase with increasing conversation length SLIDE 20: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 2 - project is in initial stages of development - testing to begin in late 2003 SLIDE 21: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 2 - focus (preliminary): drivers' willingness to engage in wireless phone calls while driving as a function of situation. - assess drivers' willingness to make/receive calls under a variety of traffic conditions and situations SLIDE 22: NADS WIRELESS PHONE STUDY 3 - factors may include traffic density, environmental conditions, conversation type - drivers choose when to make calls [create situations in which driver needs to acquire info by phone in order to continue] - determine whether hands free affects decision making with respect traffic situations in which drivers are willing to make calls - monetary incentives will be used to establish priorities with respect to primary and secondary tasks SLIDE 23: NADS ASSESSMENT OF DRIVER DISTRACTION DUE TO IN-VEHICLE INFORMATION SYSTEMS (TELEMATICS) - FOCUS: in-vehicle electronic devices - new devices have expanded functionality [video phone calls, instant messaging, message retrieval, internet, traveler info, .... SLIDE 24: NADS ASSESSMENT OF DRIVER DISTRACTION DUE TO IN-VEHICLE INFORMATION SYSTEMS (TELEMATICS) - Examine the effects of the use of devices for functions other than those used for voice communication on: * driving behavior & performance * driver eye glance behavior SLIDE 25: DEVELOPMENT OF ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES FOR EVALUATING COGNITIVE DRIVER DISTRACTION Many crashes occur when the driver appears to be attending to the driving task, but does not recognize a traffic conflict - typically characterized in crash record as "looked but did not see" [looked but did not see crashes can also involve device use, visual detection errors... Cognitive distraction examples include drivers being involved in intense phone conversation or lost in thought SLIDE 26: DEVELOPMENT OF ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES FOR EVALUATING COGNITIVE DRIVER DISTRACTION These situations will be invetigated by developing ways of measuring cognitive distraction - identify characteristics of drivers' behavior and performance that indicate the presence of cognitive distraction [e.g. eye glance patterns indicating a narrower field of view or a less active visual scanning pattern] SLIDE 27: SUMMARY OF NADS DRIVER DISTRACTION RESERACH PROGRAM - NHTSA has ongoing studies addressing issues relating to driver distraction - current research focus is on distraction caused by wireless phone use - subsequent research to examine distraction due to other devices, measurement techniques for cognitive distraction - through this research we hope to better understand driver distraction, factors which affect it, and possible ways to reduce distraction SLIDE 28: The End Status of these and other NADS research projects run by VRTC can be found at: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/vrtc/ca/nads.htm SLIDE :