Aging: Older Adults' Driving Behavior Using Longitudinal and Lateral Warning Systems

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Human Factors Engineering
• Traffic Safety

Background:

• Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) offer benefits across age groups.
• Previous studies with younger drivers indicated that safety benefits of multiple ADAS may not be additive.
• Concurrent use of forward collision warning (FCW) and lane departure warning (LDW) in younger samples led to decreased following distance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess older drivers' driving behavior with combined longitudinal and lateral vehicle warning systems.
• To evaluate the impact of using forward collision warning (FCW) and/or lane departure warning (LDW) on driving performance and subjective workload in older adults.

Main Methods:

• A driving simulator study involving 128 older drivers.
• Participants experienced forward collision warning (FCW) and/or lane departure warning (LDW) systems during a ~25-minute simulated drive.
• Driving performance metrics (headway distance, time-to-collision, standard deviation of lane position) and subjective workload were measured.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in headway distance were observed across different FCW/LDW system combinations.
• Older drivers using FCW systems demonstrated significantly longer time-to-collision (TTC) when approaching critical events.
• Lane departure warning (LDW) system use did not reduce the standard deviation of lane position; subjective workload remained unchanged.

Conclusions:

• Forward collision warning (FCW) systems may enhance older drivers' time-to-collision (TTC) during driving.
• Contrary to findings in younger populations, concurrent use of FCW and LDW did not negatively impact older drivers' longitudinal driving performance or subjective workload.
• These findings suggest that older drivers can effectively utilize combined FCW and LDW systems without compromising driving performance or increasing cognitive load.