PRELIMINARY HUMAN FACTORS GUIDELINES FOR AUTOMOBILE BACKING WARNING SYSTEMS

Preliminary human factors guidelines for automobile backing warning systems are provided. These guidelines are based on a series of four experiments. The four experiments examined the following issues: determination of drivers' naturalistic backing behavior, reaction times to alarms while backing, subjective estimates of warning zones while backing, and ratings of acoustic alarm variation. The naturalistic backing experiment provided a behavioral baseline for backing. The reaction time experiment measured reaction times and stopping times to alarms presented at various points in different backing tasks. The subjective estimates of warning zones experiment measured where drivers believed warning zones should start. The acoustic alarm variation experiment measured drivers' ratings for a variety of alarm variations. Each human factors guideline is presented with a detailed rationale. The guidelines cover the following topic areas: general alarm features, triggering criteria while in motion, triggering criteria while stationary, nature of acoustic imminent alarms, nature of acoustic cautionary alarms, and visual warning attributes. These guidelines provide a foundation for the development of prototype backing alarm systems. In summary, the objective of this project was to examine the spectrum of human factors issues related to the design and implementation of backing crash avoidance warning systems. In support of this objective, the authors conducted critical analyses, developed preliminary guidelines, and conducted new empirical research on selected issues.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Full conference proceedings available only on CD.
• Corporate Authors:

  ITS America

  1100 17th Street, NW, 12th Floor
  Washington, DC  United States  20036
• Authors:
  • Harpster, J
  • Huey, R
  • Lerner, N
  • Steinberg, G
  • Perel, M
• Conference:
  • Merging the Transportation and Communications Revolutions. Abstracts for ITS America Seventh Annual Meeting and Exposition
  • Location: Washington, D.C.
  • Date: 1997-6-2 to 1997-6-5
• Publication Date: 1997

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: n.p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Acoustic signal processing; Alarm systems; Automobiles; Backing (Driving); Behavior; Crash avoidance systems; Drivers; Driving; Guidelines; Human factors; Maneuvering; Reaction time; Signals; Warning systems
• Old TRIS Terms: Acoustic signals; Visual signals; Warning zones
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00742355
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 13 1997 12:00AM