It is expected that the number of in-vehicle telematic systems will increase rapidly over the next few years, leading to an increased amount of information a driver has to deal with besides the primary task of driving. The main advantages of these systems lie in the ability to increase both the safety and the comfort of the driving task. However, this can come at the cost of additional perceptual and cognitive load, as the driving task is extended with the task of reacting correctly on the information, directions and warnings that these systems provide. In the scope of the research project LIVES (Driver Interaction with Transport-telematic Systems), the organisations CURE (Center for Usability Research & Engineering) and FACTUM (Transport- and Social Analyses) have investigated how these systems could be used optimally to improve the safety on the road, as supported by the project line I2 — Intelligent Infrastructure of the Austrian Federal Ministery of Transport, Innovation and Technology. The project LIVES dealt with the integration of these disjunctly developed systems. When these in-vehicle devices are not matched to one another, the driver may run the risk of being distracted by unimportant information during possibly critical situations. To be able to answer the research questions formulated by FACTUM, CURE developed a driving simulator specifically tuned to these questions. The participants were confronted with realistic traffic situations in the simulator, had to pay attention to pedestrians and oncoming traffic and received information on current situations to which they had to react. The driving simulator made it possible to investigate the effects of the interaction between drivers and elements that provide information, on the driving behaviour, and to obtain important findings to improve on traffic safety. The results of these experiments were discussed with experts during a one-day workshop and were used to formulated guidelines to increase safety. These guidelines focus on one hand on the optimal use of auditory, visual and haptic information for the driver and on the other hand on the simultaneous communication of more than one system. The findings that were found in literature were confirmed in the experiments, and specifically, it was found that: * The auditory channel is best chosen for general information that has no direct influence on the driving task, as well as for warnings that require an urgent reaction of the driver. * Visual information is best chosen for general or intermediate (reaction required, but not immediately) information * Haptic information is mainly to be used for the communication of intermediate information, as well as for urgent warnings in special cases. The findings also underlined that simultaneous communication should be avoided whenever possible, as it easily leads to an overload situation for the driver. Hence it is recommended to delay the communication of less important information until a higher-priority warning has been resolved. A solution for this problem can be found in the direction of a “workload manager” or “dialogue manager” that choose which information should be presented first. Although such technical solutions are much sought for, their development must be based on socio-scientific findings (such as the guidelines described in this project). With the aid of this research, solutions for both individual systems and combinations of systems can be developed. (Author/publisher) This publication may be accessed by Internet users at: http://www.ictct.org/workshop.php?workshop_nr=25
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