Can drivers' eye movements be used to monitor their performance? A case study

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between drivers' eye movements and their driving performance, when drivers interact with in-vehicle systems. The impact of a set of in-vehicle visual tasks (VT) on drivers' workload, task performance and eye movements was studied in an on-road experiment with 41 subjects (29 male and 12 female), using an instrumented vehicle. The degree of distraction was differentiated into three groups by cluster analysis based on two sets of selected drivers' eye movement parameters. The results showed that the in-vehicle VT had a negative effect on driving performance, accompanied by a change in drivers' visual behaviour, including a reduction in speed, a higher speed deviation and less predictable steering behaviour. At the same time, a decrease of looking ahead was replaced by viewing the touch screen, and a significant increase in drivers' saccade was observed as the task difficulty level increased. The groups that were the most significantly affected by VT demonstrated a significantly worse driving performance. It is therefore concluded that the deteriorated performance caused by distraction can be diagnosed by visual behaviour change, and it is possible to use eye movements to monitor the change in driving performance.