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

Abstract

This study assessed older drivers' driving behavior when using longitudinal and lateral vehicle warning systems together. Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) can benefit drivers of all ages. Previous research with younger to middle-aged samples suggests that safety benefits are not necessarily additive with additional ADAS. Increases in following distance associated with the use of forward collision warning (FCW) decreased when drivers also used lane departure warning (LDW), likely due to attending to the LDW more than the FCW. The current study used a driving simulator to provide 128 older drivers experience with FCW and/or LDW system(s) during a ~25-min drive to gauge their usage's effects on driving performance and subjective workload. There were no significant differences found in headway distance between older drivers who used different combinations of FCW and LDW systems, but those who used an FCW system showed significantly longer time-to-collision (TTC) when approaching the critical event than those who did not. Users of LDW systems did not show reductions in standard deviation of lane position. Analyses of subjective workload measures showed no significant differences between conditions. Findings suggest that FCW could increase older drivers' TTC over the course of a drive. Contrary to previous findings in younger samples, concurrent use of FCW and LDW systems did not adversely affect older drivers' longitudinal driving performance and subjective workload. Potential applications of this research include the assessment of older drivers' use of vehicle warning systems and their effects on subjective workload.