Assessment of stimulus distance during driving

Abstract

We make about 1,400 decisions in one hour of the day, which makes about 35,000 decisions in 24 hours. The driver's task in traffic is to assess traffic situations and act in accordance with their decisions in traffic. One of the most common causes of traffic accidents is "misjudgment of road users". The perception of space is one of the prerequisites for safe and successful driving. In order to investigate the mentioned issue, the authors of this paper conducted an experimental study with the aim of determining what affects the perception of the distance to the object. 164 respondents participated in the experiment. The research results show statistically significant differences in the perception of distance to objects of different colors. The respondents with the smallest error estimate the distance to the red object better, in the conditions when the driver sits in the driver's seat and observes the object through the camera in the vehicle (hereinafter via the camera), while the respondents in the situation when the driver sits and observes the object in the rearview mirror (hereinafter to the text by looking in the rearview mirror) and in the situation when the driver is sitting and looking at objects over his shoulder (direct observation) estimated the distance to the yellow object with the smallest error. Respondents with the highest error estimate the distance to the blue and green objects.