The importance of User Experience is growing in the automotive context, which differs from other products regarding its safety-criticality. Freehand gestures might be a solution for enhancing the User Experience without endangering road users. This paper proposes some approaches on using freehand gestures to create User Experience in the automotive context and to decrease driver distraction at ...

This paper presents the findings of a simulator study that examined the effects of distraction upon driving performance for drivers in three age groups. There were two in-vehicle distracter tasks: operating the vehicle entertainment system and conducting a simulated hands-free mobile phone conversation. The effect of visual clutter was examined by requiring participants to drive in simple and c...

To maximize the effectiveness of strategies for mitigating driver distraction, it is crucial to understand the factors underlying drivers’ engagement in distractions. This article describes a step toward an improved version of the Susceptibility to Driver Distraction Questionnaire (SDDQ), namely the development of an exploratory questionnaire based on findings from the original SDDQ. In this ex...

We conducted a study in fiscal 2000-2002 concerning a network-distributed voice-activated telematics service system and another study in fiscal 2003-2004 concerning a voice-activated system and driver distraction. Based on those original studies, this paper presents dialogue management corresponding to the driver’s workload and other factors, with the aim of help to develop consensus for voice-...

Vehicle crashes caused by driver distraction are of increasing concern. One approach to reduce the number of these crashes mitigates distraction by giving drivers feedback regarding their performance. For these mitigation systems to be effective, drivers must trust and accept them. The objective of this study was to evaluate real-time and post-drive mitigation systems designed to reduce driver ...

There remains some debate regarding secondary task distractions, such as cell phones, as a risk factor in traffic crashes and their relative risk compared to existing factors, such as engagement in common in-vehicle tasks and alcohol impairment. Moreover, studies of driver impairment often investigate single risk factors rather than combined factors (e.g. distraction task while drunk). This stu...

The increasing use of personal in-car technologies has created more opportunities for driver distraction. Communication and navigational systems exact a high cognitive price for the assistance they provide to the driver. Starting from existing research in the areas of augmented reality and context-aware systems, this paper proposes a system designed to assist the driver in the primary task whil...

Driver distraction and safety concerns have been identified for new highway logo sign configurations. This study assessed driver perception of logo signs and distraction under nine-panel, overflow-combination, or standard six-panel formats. A nine-panel sign has nine business panels within a single sign; a six-panel sign has six panels within a sign; an overflow-combination consists of a standa...

Studies show that teenage drivers are at a higher risk for crashes. Opportunities to engage in technology and non-technology based distractions appear to be a particular concern among this age group. An ordered logit model was developed to predict the likelihood of a severe injury for these drivers and their passenger using a national crash database (the 2003, U.S. DOT-General Estimate System [...

This study investigated 478 police accident reports from 9 states to examine and characterize rollover crashes involving ESC-equipped vehicles. The focus was on the sequence of critical events leading to loss of control and rollover, and the interactions between the accident, driver, and environment. Results show that, while ESC is effective in reducing loss of control leading to certain rollov...