Although collision warning systems have been shown to improve inattentive and/or distracted driver response time (RT) in rear-end collision situations, little research has compared sensory modalities for the warning systems. This study examined the effectiveness of rear-end collision warnings presented in tactile, visual and auditory modalities as a function of warning timing in a driving simulator. Sixteen participants in a fixed-base driving simulator experienced four warning conditions: no warning, visual, auditory, and tactile. The warnings activated when the time-to-collision reached a critical threshold of 3.0 or 5.0 s. Driver RT was captured from a warning below critical threshold to brake initiation. Results showed that drivers with a tactile warning had the shortest mean RT. Drivers with a tactile warning also had significantly shorter RT than drivers without a warning and had a significant advantage over drivers with visual warnings.
Abstract