Supporting drivers in concurrent lane and speed tracking tasks with novel visual, auditory, and tactile speedometer displays

Abstract

Driving can be described as performing multiple concurrent tracking tasks. These tasks primarily involve processing visual feedback, and the competition for visual resources may limit overall performance. Providing feedback via different sensory channels may improve multi-tracking performance; however, not much is known about basic human abilities to perform multiple controlled tracking tasks, nor about the use of nonvisual feedback in those tasks. This study measured the performance of participants in lane and speed tracking tasks when speed information was encoded into ambient visual, auditory, and tactile displays. The findings show that all three of these novel displays significantly improved speed tracking over a baseline condition without significantly impacting lane tracking performance. Dual-tracking performance was best supported with ambient visual and auditory displays, and participants preferred the auditory and tactile displays. The findings provide insight into multi-tracking abilities when feedback is distributed among sensory channels, and can inform design of in-vehicle displays.