The effect of haptic guidance on driver steering performance during curve negotiation with limited visual feedback

Abstract

Visual feedback from the road ahead is required for steering a car. When visual feedback is limited or only partial road is visible, driver steering performance declines. To solve this problem, haptic feedback is expected to assist drivers by providing guidance torque on the steering wheel. This paper focuses on the effect of haptic guidance on driver steering performance during curve negotiation when visual feedback is limited. Twelve subjects participated in the experiment conducted in a high-fidelity driving simulator. Levels of haptic guidance were none, weak, and strong, and levels of visual feedback were whole, near, medium and far. The steering performance was assessed by drivers' turning maneuver when approaching and leaving curves, and time-to-lane crossing during curves. Results indicate that mean value of time-to-lane crossing decreased due to the implementation of strong haptic guidance when visual feedback was limited. The start point of turning maneuver was earlier resulting from the implementation of strong haptic guidance under the condition of visual feedback from near segment. In conclusion, the drivers tended to rely on haptic guidance to achieve better steering performance when visual feedback was limited.