Text Messaging While Driving: User Experience and Interface Type
Driver distraction often contributes to driver fatalities and motor vehicle collisions. In- vehicle tasks, performed while driving, have been shown to increase crash risk by a factor of four. Of the many in-vehicle tasks that negatively affect drivers’ performance, texting while driving has been found to correlate with longer glances away from the road which in turn affect vehicle control measures such as speed, steering and lane deviation. Nevertheless, to the best of the authors' knowledge, no study has yet focused on how texting might affect higher cognitive skills such as drivers’ ability to anticipate latent hazards, a skill that correlates with traffic crashes. Nor has anyone looked at how the effects of experience with texting or the interface to the texting device (the form factor) might influence hazard anticipation. In this study, 32 drivers – 16 frequent and 16 infrequent texters – were asked to drive in a simulator while performing various texting tasks. There were four experimental groups (Blackberry – Frequent, Blackberry – Infrequent, iPhone – Frequent and iPhone-Infrequent). Drivers were asked to text during three out of six scenarios while their eye movements were monitored. The results are consistent with the conclusion that when texting, both frequent and infrequent texters are less likely to glance at a latent hazard than when not texting. Furthermore, frequent texters do not anticipate more hazards than do infrequent texters. Finally, the type of device did not have a significant impact on hazard anticipation. The results suggest that texting while driving compromises driver safety regardless of whether drivers are good texters or sending messages on a more user friendly device.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AND10 Vehicle User Characteristics.
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Corporate Authors:
500 Fifth Street, NW
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Authors:
- Samuel, Siby
- Borowsky, Avinoam
- Fisher, Donald L
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC
- Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
- Date: 2014
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 14p
- Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Cognition; Distraction; Driving simulators; Roadside hazards; Text messaging; Traffic safety; User interfaces (Computer science)
- Uncontrolled Terms: Anticipatory skills
- Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01519638
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 14-1833
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Mar 26 2014 10:07AM