Because in-vehicle tasks can distract drivers and undermine safety, strategies should be developed to mitigate distraction. This paper reports on an experiment to assess the effects of distraction mitigation strategies on drivers' performance while engaged in an in-vehicle information system task. In the experiment, an advising strategy that alerts drivers to potential dangers and a locking strategy that prevents the driver from continuing the distracting task were presented to 16 middle-aged and 12 older drivers in a driving simulator in two modes (auditory, visual) and two road conditions (curves, braking events). Results showed that distraction was a problem for both age groups. Visual distractions were more detrimental than auditory ones for curve negotiation, as depicted by more erratic steering. Drivers did brake more abruptly under auditory distractions, but this effect was mitigated by both the advising and locking strategies. The locking strategy also resulted in longer minimum time to collision for middle-aged drivers engaged in visual distractions. These findings indicate that incorporating these adaptive interfaces into in-vehicle systems could mitigate the effects of distraction.
Abstract