The impact of CCT on driving safety in the normal and accident situation: A VR-based experimental study

Correlated color temperature (CCT) of the light source inside the road tunnel plays a crucial role in ensuring driving safety, which is demonstrated by previous studies that CCT influences not only visual effects but also non-visual effects. Although conventional laboratory experiments could simulate the CCT environment inside the tunnel to some extent, they fail to restore driving experience, let alone simulate driving behavior in the accident situation. It has largely remained unclear whether and how CCT would influence visual/non-visual performance of the subjects who are performing driving tasks, especially in the accident situation. Motivated by this gap, a virtual-reality-based framework for assessing the influence of CCT on the visual and non/visual performance in normal driving situation and in accident situation was proposed. In this study, tunnel models under seven different CCTs were created and a rear-end accident was designed in the tunnel. By integrating analog driving equipment, all participants were required to perform virtual driving tasks both in the normal situation and in the accident situation. The non-visual performance (driving fatigue) and the visual performance (reaction time) of the participants were collected and analyzed. Results show that the CCT of light source inside the tunnel was significant on the driving fatigue of the driver who was performing driving task, and it also had a significant impact on the visual performance when the driver was faced with a rear-end accident. Detailed experimental methodology, behavioral explanations underlying these findings, validity of results and practical implications are also discussed in the paper.     

驾驶员转向特性分类与在线辨识研究

针对汽车驾驶员转向特性分类与在线辨识问题,基于驾驶模拟器实验台,设计典型实验工况,选取具有一定驾驶经验的驾驶员进行实验研究。采集驾驶员转向过程实验数据并提取特征值,应用模糊C均值聚类算法将驾驶员转向特性分为谨慎型、一般型和激进型三类;根据分类实验数据应用BP神经网络算法建立驾驶员转向特性辨识模型,对模型辨识准确度进行离线验证,并基于辨识模型设计在线辨识方法。实验结果表明:研究方法能够实现对驾驶员转向特性的合理分类和在线准确辨识。     

试论汽车驾驶培训中的一体化教学

职业技能培训教学一体化是职业教育的优选方法,能提高受培训者的综合能力素质。汽车驾驶培训教学中的三个"一体化"是指汽车构造理论与实物车辆教学一体化、车辆使用常识与实车操作教学一体化和驾驶考试项目与道路驾驶教学一体化。要提高汽车驾驶培训教学一体化的效果,就必须打造实施教学一体化的环境;多头并举,着力推进教学一体化;培训能实施教学一体化的"实力"型教师。     

Personal driving diary: Automated recognition of driving events from first-person videos

In this paper, we introduce the concept of personal driving diary. A personal driving diary is a multimedia archive of a person’s daily driving experience, describing important driving events of the user with annotated videos. This paper presents an automated system that constructs such multimedia diary by analyzing videos obtained from a vehicle-mounted camera. The proposed system recognizes important interactions between the driving vehicle and the other actors in videos (e.g., accident, overtaking, etc.), and labels them together with its contextual knowledge on the vehicle (e.g., mean velocity) to construct an event log. A decision tree based activity recognizer is designed, detecting driving events of vehicles and pedestrians from the first-person view videos by analyzing their trajectories and spatio-temporal relationships. The constructed diary enables efficient searching and event-based browsing of video clips, which helps the users when retrieving videos of dangerous situations. Our experiment confirms that the proposed system reliably generates driving diaries by annotating the vehicle events learned from training examples.     

Rectification of legibility distance in a driving simulator

Visual differences lead to differences in the legibility distances of traffic signs between driving simulators and real road environments. To ensure that the legibility distance in a simulator is similar to that in the real world, this study proposes a theoretical equation for predicting legibility distance and a simple algorithm for determining the magnifying power of a traffic sign for a display system in a simulator. Experiments of traffic sign recognition using a simulator were conducted under quasi-static and dynamic driving conditions. On-road tests were also carried out under quasi-static and dynamic driving conditions. Thirty healthy and non-disabled volunteers were recruited. The experimental results showed that the proposed theoretical equation for predicting legibility distance and the simple algorithm for determining the magnifying power of traffic signs reduced the difference in legibility distances between the simulator and real road environment under quasi-static and dynamic driving conditions.     

Round-trip driving effects on driving performances and mental workload under different traffic rules

This study investigates the effect of switching between different traffic rules (left-versus right-hand traffic) on driving performance and mental workload. A driving simulation environment was developed according to the real environment. Two urban roads with different traffic systems were simulated. Twenty participants executed intersection turns and continuous car-following behavior in four simulated driving stages, including driving with familiar, unfamiliar, second time unfamiliar, and back to familiar traffic rules. The mean and standard deviations for speed, distance headway, and the standard deviation of lateral position were recorded as driving performance. Mental workload was determined using the NASA-TLX and Rating Scale Mental Effort questionnaires. One-way analysis of variance was used to evaluate the differences between the four driving stages using subjective and objective measures. The results showed that significant differences were obtained in all measures when driving in the four driving situations, except for the speed standard deviation. The car-following behavior was the most unsafe (significantly larger standard deviations for distance headway and mental workload) when driving in unfamiliar road traffic compared with the other stages. When driving under unfamiliar traffic rules for the second time, the mental workload was significantly relieved and the lane-keeping ability significantly improved. The results indicated that providing an adaptive runway for drivers to familiarize themselves with different traffic rules is necessary to improve driving performance and safety. These findings provide useful information for designing bridges linking two places with different traffic rules to increase traffic safety.     

Validation of the Driver’s Angry Thoughts Questionnaire (DATQ) in a Chinese sample

The relationship between driving anger and negative driving outcomes, such as dangerous driving behaviors and traffic violations, has been the topic of several studies, but few studies have explored drivers’ angry thoughts when they encounter anger-provoking situations and the potential consequences of such thoughts. The purpose of this study was to investigate drivers’ angry thoughts behind the wheel and their relationship with dangerous driving behaviors. A total of 303 Chinese drivers completed the Chinese version of the Driver’s Angry Thoughts Questionnaire (DATQ), the Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI) and the Driving Anger Scale (DAS). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the Chinese DATQ yielded a five-factor solution with 20 items that showed the best goodness of fit for the data. The brief DATQ also showed good reliability and validity. Three forms of aggressive thinking were positively correlated with dangerous driving behaviors, and coping self-instruction was negatively correlated with dangerous driving behaviors and traffic violations. More importantly, aggressive thinking mediated the effect of driving anger on dangerous driving behaviors, indicating the importance of thoughts behind the wheel. These results provide evidence supporting the development of strategies to reduce and prevent aggressive driving and accidents.     

A rear-end collision risk assessment model based on drivers’ collision avoidance process under influences of cell phone use and gender—A driving simulator based study

Driver’s collision avoidance performance has a direct link to the collision risk and crash severity. Previous studies demonstrated that the distracted driving, such as using a cell phone while driving, disrupted the driver’s performance on road. This study aimed to investigate the manner and extent to which cell phone use and driver’s gender affected driving performance and collision risk in a rear-end collision avoidance process. Forty-two licensed drivers completed the driving simulation experiment in three phone use conditions: no phone use, hands-free, and hand-held, in which the drivers drove in a car-following situation with potential rear-end collision risks caused by the leading vehicle’s sudden deceleration. Based on the experiment data, a rear-end collision risk assessment model was developed to assess the influence of cell phone use and driver’s gender. The cell phone use and driver’s gender were found to be significant factors that affected the braking performances in the rear-end collision avoidance process, including the brake reaction time, the deceleration adjusting time and the maximum deceleration rate. The minimum headway distance between the leading vehicle and the simulator during the rear-end collision avoidance process was the final output variable, which could be used to measure the rear-end collision risk and judge whether a collision occurred. The results showed that although cell phone use drivers took some compensatory behaviors in the collision avoidance process to reduce the mental workload, the collision risk in cell phone use conditions was still higher than that without the phone use. More importantly, the results proved that the hands-free condition did not eliminate the safety problem associated with distracted driving because it impaired the driving performance in the same way as much as the use of hand-held phones. In addition, the gender effect indicated that although female drivers had longer reaction time than male drivers in critical situation, they were more quickly in braking with larger maximum deceleration rate, and they tended to keep a larger safety margin with the leading vehicle compared to male drivers. The findings shed some light on the further development of advanced collision avoidance technologies and the targeted intervention strategies about cell phone use while driving.     

The evaluation of cluster policy by fuzzy MCDM: Empirical evidence from HsinChu Science Park

In the recent years, industrial clusters have received considerable attention from economists and industrial analysts, because they are seen as the main reason for economic growth and success of certain economic region. This study systematically reviews past researches of industrial cluster. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of this issue regarding the driving forces for the growth of industrial cluster and find out the priority among these cluster policies. Taiwan HsinChu Science Park is a prime example for this paper, and its connection with the innovative participators. We begin with an examination of the literature on cluster about its driving forces and policies upon which we propose a conceptual framework. In doing so, we explore the cluster-based industrial system. Then this research adopts the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process as the analytical tool. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process method is used to determine the weightings for evaluation dimension among decision makers. From our research results, the Factor Conditions is the most important driving force for advancing the industrial cluster performance. Moreover, the promotion of international linkages policy and broader framework policies rank the first two priorities for cluster policy. Overall, this paper concludes with some simulations of cluster policy alternatives confronting the industry and the Taiwanese government.     

Safe driving in a green world: A review of driver performance benchmarks and technologies to support ‘smart’ driving

Road transport is a significant source of both safety and environmental concerns. With climate change and fuel prices increasingly prominent on social and political agendas, many drivers are turning their thoughts to fuel efficient or ‘green’ (i.e., environmentally friendly) driving practices. Many vehicle manufacturers are satisfying this demand by offering green driving feedback or advice tools. However, there is a legitimate concern regarding the effects of such devices on road safety – both from the point of view of change in driving styles, as well as potential distraction caused by the in-vehicle feedback. In this paper, we appraise the benchmarks for safe and green driving, concluding that whilst they largely overlap, there are some specific circumstances in which the goals are in conflict. We go on to review current and emerging in-vehicle information systems which purport to affect safe and/or green driving, and discuss some fundamental ergonomics principles for the design of such devices. The results of the review are being used in the Foot-LITE project, aimed at developing a system to encourage ‘smart’ – that is safe and green – driving.