Human Factors for Connected Vehicles: Effective Warning Interface Research Findings

This project explored human factors issues in the development of Connected Vehicle (CV) driver vehicle interfaces with an emphasis on maximizing driver comprehension and appropriate responses to warnings. Four distinct research efforts are described in this report. Experiment 1 investigated the perceived urgency of various driving event scenarios in a laboratory setting. The objective of the experiment was to identify the structure of user perceptions of urgency so that CV systems might be made consistent with user expectancies. Results showed that several factors affected participants’ perceptions of perceived urgency, and that ratings of urgency tended to fall into one of three general categories: High threat, caution, and no urgency. Experiment 2 used a series of psychophysical experiments to determine how the manipulation of various alert parameters affects perceived urgency. The experiment also developed and validated a method to determine and compare perceived urgency across visual, auditory, and tactile modalities and within different parameters of each of these modalities. Experiment 3 investigated whether collision avoidance systems should present individual crash alerts in a multiple conflict scenario, or only present one alert in response to the first conflict and suppress the subsequent alert to the second conflict. The closed-course procedure showed that participants’ responses to a surprise event were generally more appropriate when both alerts were presented, and participants subjectively preferred this approach. Experiment 4 investigated the extent to which driver response to imminent crash warnings is affected by the degree of integration when there are multiple CV products in the vehicle. The closed-course procedure showed that participants recognized warnings most quickly when only one display was active in the car. When both displays were active, response times generally improved when messages and warnings were integrated into a single physical location. The authors used the research findings as a basis for a discussion of implications for the design and use of crash-related warning displays within the CV context.

• Record URL:
  http://www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/NVS/Crash Avoidance/Technical Publications/2014/812068-HumanFactorsConnectedVehicles.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Westat

  1600 Research Boulevard
  Rockville, MD  United States  20850-3129

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Lerner, Neil
  • Robinson, Emanuel
  • Singer, Jeremiah
  • Jenness, James
  • Huey, Richard
  • Baldwin, Carryl
  • Fitch, Gregory
• Publication Date: 2014-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 134p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Comprehension; Crash avoidance systems; Driver vehicle interfaces; Human factors; Mobile communication systems; Perception; Warning signals
• Uncontrolled Terms: Perceived urgency
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01554249
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT HS 812 068
• Contract Numbers: DTNH22-05-D-01002; Task 21
• Files: HSL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Feb 26 2015 9:49AM