A Six-week Field Test Examined Factors that Influence the Acceptance of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Among Senior Drivers.
Virginia, United States
Examining Senior Drivers’ Attitudes Toward Advanced Driver Assistance Systems After Naturalistic Exposure
Summary Information
Advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) technologies have the potential to improve safety and mobility for senior drivers by compensating for age-related declines in physical and cognitive abilities.
This study examined factors that influence seniors’ attitudes toward adopting ADAS after significant exposure to the technology in naturalistic settings. Eighteen senior drivers aged 70 to 79 were recruited to participate in a driving study in the New River Valley area in Southwest Virginia. At the beginning of the study, participants were given questionnaires to collect demographics, driving habits, and history, as well as their pre-exposure attitudes toward ADAS. Each participant was then assigned to one of the four vehicle models. Each of these vehicles was equipped with at least the following four ADAS: blind spot alert (BSA), lane alert (LA), lane keeping assist (LKA), and adaptive cruise control (ACC). After training, participants were asked to drive the study vehicle as they normally would for a six-week period.
Weekly phone surveys were conducted to collect data on participants’ attitudes about and usage of the vehicles and each ADAS. The same questionnaire used at the beginning of the study was re-administered to collect participants’ post-exposure attitudes toward the ADAS. In addition, a 90-minute focus group session was conducted, in which participants shared their opinions on ADAS. Topic modeling, an unsupervised text analysis method, was selected to analyze the collected data. Five topics were identified from the data, including safety, confidence concerning ADAS, ADAS functionality, user interface/usability, and non-ADAS–related features.
- Equip vehicles with BSA and ACC technology for wider acceptance of ADAS among senior drivers. The study results indicated that safety is seniors’ main ADAS-related consideration. Among the investigated ADAS technologies, BSA and ACC made the biggest impression on seniors in terms of their safety benefits. It was identified through surveys that turning their heads to check blind spots was a challenging task while driving and was something that could be mitigated by alerts from the BSA system. Participants also reported that ACC made them feel more comfortable behind the wheel, indicating that their usage of ACC decreased workload and stress in addition to the safety benefits.
- Design user interfaces in ADAS applications to accommodate preferences and limitations of senior drivers. As seniors consider the safety of vehicles as the primary criterion in their purchase decision, to promote ADAS adoption, user interfaces should take into consideration senior preferences and limitations in their ability to use advanced technological applications.
- Provide in-depth training programs for senior drivers. As technological improvements of ADAS can take time, effective training for seniors must be available that offers hands-on experience to provide real-time operational knowledge and familiarity with ADAS so that there are no new automation surprises. Seniors also indicated that confidence in the ADAS and their self-confidence in using them grew along with knowledge derived from driving experience and reading the owner’s manual.
- Minimize false alerts to reduce mistrust and increase acceptability. Limited capability and false alerts when driving through a construction area or inclement weather conditions resulted in safety-related concerns among senior drivers. For example, participants in this study showed signs of ADAS mistrust via expressing concerns about false alerts from LKA in construction zones.
