Investigating the Effects of Downhill Roads on Driver’s Eye Movements

Abstract

Despite the increasing popularity of self-driving cars, researchers in the transportation industry continues to prioritize accident prevention and safety improvement. This study inspects the influence of driving experience and gender on the driver’s gaze and pupil behaviors while descending a downhill. The data in this paper was collected by equipping ten subjects Tobii Pro glasses II in a series of experiments designed to track their gaze and pupil behavior in a downhill road section. The statistical and Python-based data analysis shows that novice drivers pay more attention to the instrument panel on the downhill road, and their pupils’ diameter is larger at both the top and bottom of the hill. In addition, female drivers pay more attention to the instrument panel than male drivers do during downhill tasks. Finally, more accurate formulas can be obtained by considering the experience and gender of drivers through logistics regression. This study has important theoretical significance for discovering the driver’s target search process and improving the driver assistance system.