A THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF AUTOMOBILE PATH DEVIATIONS WHEN DRIVER STEERS WITH NO VISUAL INPUT

Theoretical and experimental investigations were conducted of automobile path deviations when a driver is attempting to steer his vehicle along a straight path with his vision occluded. A three-factor (car, subject, speed), tow-level field experiment was carried out to test for main and interaction effects. Another field experiment was carried out to determine the effects of no steering control. In both experiments, the vehicle path deviations from the theoretical straight path were measured over several hundred feet and were used as the dependent variable. Both experiments were conducted on a flat airport runway under daylight and no-wind conditions. The experimental results indicate no significant car or subject effects but a highly significant speed effect and a significant car-subject interaction. Specifically, the standard deviations of the vehicle displacements from the theoretical straight path are considerably smaller at the higher speed for a given distance traveled under occluded vision. Further, the standard deviations of vehicle displacements for a given distance traveled are considerably larger for the no steering control condition than for the steering control condition with no visual input. The experimentally obtained data seem in basic agreement with the theoretical path deviation model. Based on the experimental data, the distribution of vehicle displacements for a given distance traveled under no visual input could be reasonably approximated by a normal distribution.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1974/520/520-003.pdf
• Summary URL:
  • http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=A+THEORETICAL+AND+EXPERIMENTAL+INVESTIGATION+OF+AUTOMOBILE+PATH+DEVIATIONS+WHEN+DRIVER+STEERS+WITH+NO+VISUAL+INPUT&author=H.+Zwahlen&author=K.+Balasubramanian&publication_year=1974
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Road User Characteristics. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Zwahlen, Helmut T
  • Balasubramanian, Kattalampat N
• Discussers:
  • Weir, David H
• Conference:
  • 53rd Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia, United States
  • Date: 1974-1-21 to 1974-1-25
• Publication Date: 1974

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: pp 25-37
• Monograph Title: Driver performance
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 520
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Dislocation (Geology); Driver performance; Drivers; Field tests; Normal distributions; Personnel performance; Speed; Standard deviation; Steering; Vehicle dynamics; Visual perception
• Uncontrolled Terms: Vehicle path
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00095726
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309023653
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jul 2 1975 12:00AM