Seventy years ago people were already concerned about older drivers having to adjust to changes in cars. In an article on traffic accidents and age, written in 1938, we read “. . . drivers who were trained on 30-mile per hour cars will have to be retrained to drive their improved vehicles safely at the higher rates of speed prevailing on our highways” (De Silva, 1938). The rapid development of technology since then and the aging of the population have greatly increased those concerns. Today, new in-vehicle systems must be adapted to their prospective users, who receive no specific training on how to use them and whose cognitive and sensory abilities vary. The design of these devices will determine whether or not users accept them and will, therefore, have major business consequences for the companies that market them. In this article I outline some of the challenges facing the designers of in-vehicle devices for an older population and suggest how these devices can be designed and introduced in ways that encourage their success. (Author/publisher)
Abstract