Drivers are significantly more likely to identify pedestrian and vehicle hazards when presented with visual warnings from forward collision warning systems.

University of Massachusetts-Amherst simulator study evaluated the effects of visual warnings on hazard identification.

Date Posted
02/20/2018
Identifier
2017-B01217
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Effectiveness of Visual Collision Warning Alerts on Young Drivers' Latent Hazard Anticipation

Summary Information

Forward roadway collision systems can reduce involvement in rear-end crashes. This research examined the effectiveness of visual alerts at improving drivers’ latent hazard anticipation behavior and assessed an effective threshold for the effective alerts in a context where drivers are fully attentive and paying attention to the forward roadway.



Methodology



A driving simulator study utilized a between-subjects design with 48 participants (24 male and 24 female) aged 18 to 25 recruited from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The experimental design included 8 different scenarios (with one hazard each) administered across 4 drives of 2 scenarios each. The ordering of the drives was completely counterbalanced both, across and within groups. There were four groups of drivers in this between-subjects design. Drivers either navigated virtual scenarios with visual collision warning messages presented 2, 3, or 4 seconds before the hazard for the alerting conditions, or with no such messages for the control group (four groups: 2s, 3s, 4s and control group). The visual collision warning messages were animated messages presented during the simulated driving task with the potential hazard highlighted and repeatedly flickering (red color), and an indication for the direction of the hazards’ movement provided in some cases (3 cases). The visual warning alerts were presented on the center screen of the simulator towards the bottom right corner.

Findings

Drivers in the control group (no warning messages) anticipated 75 percent of pedestrian hazards, versus 89 percent with a 2 second warning, 92 percent with a 3 second warning, and 91 percent with a 4 second warning. A set of t-tests indicated that those who received warnings were statistically significantly more likely to identify the pedestrian hazard.

Drivers in the control group (no warning messages) anticipated 69 percent of vehicle hazards, versus 94 percent with a 2 second warning, 97 percent with a 3 second warning, and 97 percent with a 4 second warning. A set of t-tests indicated that those who received warnings were statistically significantly more likely to identify the vehicle hazard.

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