Effects of experience and electronic stability control on low friction collision avoidance in a truck driving simulator

• Published in: Accident analysis and prevention Vol. 50; pp. 1266 - 1277
• Main Authors: Markkula, Gustav, Benderius, Ola, Wolff, Krister, Wahde, Mattias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-01-2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Accidents, Traffic - prevention & control; Accidents, Traffic - psychology; Adolescent; Adult; Analysis of Variance; Automobile Driving - psychology; Avoidance; Avoidance Learning; Biological and medical sciences; Chi-Square Distribution; Choice Behavior; Collision avoidance; Collisions; Computer Simulation; Driver behaviour; Driving experience; Driving simulation; Electronic stability control; Electronics; Female; Friction; Humans; Learning Curve; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Motor Vehicles; Prevention and actions; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Reaction Time; Simulation; Stability; Statistics, Nonparametric; Steering; Trucks; User-Computer Interface; Visual Perception; Electronic stability control; Trucks; Driver behaviour; Driving simulation; Driving experience; Collisions; Stability; Vehicle driving; Check; Regulation(control); Friction; Simulation; Surveillance; Low; Computer; Behavior; Simulator; Avoidance
• ISSN: 0001-4575; 1879-2057
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2012.09.035

► Rear-end scenario with low road friction, studied in a truck driving simulator. ► Unexpected scenario: less experienced drivers reacted later, collided more often. ► Paradigm for repeated testing reproduced relevant steering avoidance situations. ► Repeated scenario: electronic stability control reduced skidding and control loss.
Two experiments were carried out in a moving-base simulator, in which truck drivers of varying experience levels encountered a rear-end collision scenario on a low-friction road surface, with and without an electronic stability control (ESC) system. In the first experiment, the drivers experienced one instance of the rear-end scenario unexpectedly, and then several instances of a version of the scenario adapted for repeated collision avoidance. In the second experiment, the unexpected rear-end scenario concluded a stretch of driving otherwise unrelated to the study presented here. Across both experiments, novice drivers were found to collide more often than experienced drivers in the unexpected scenario. This result was found to be attributable mainly to longer steering reaction times of the novice drivers, possibly caused by lower expectancy for steering avoidance. The paradigm for repeated collision avoidance was able to reproduce the type of steering avoidance situation for which critical losses of control were observed in the unexpected scenario and, here, ESC was found to reliably reduce skidding and control loss. However, it remains unclear to what extent the results regarding ESC benefits in repeated avoidance are generalisable to unexpected situations. The approach of collecting data by appending one unexpected scenario to the end of an otherwise unrelated experiment was found useful, albeit with some caveats.