Trained Novice Drivers Research Articles

Improving the tactical scanning of student pilots: A gaze-based training intervention for transition from visual flight into instrument meteorological conditions

Eye tracking has been applied to train novice drivers and clinicians; however, such applications in aviation are limited. This study develops a gaze-based intervention using video-based, expert commentary, and 3M (Mistake, Mitigation, Mastery) training to instruct visual flight rule student pilots on an instrument cross-check to mitigate the risk of losing aircraft control when they inadvertently enter instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). Twenty general aviation student pilots were randomized into control and experimental groups. Dwell time, return time, entropy, Kullback-Leibler divergence, and deviations from flight paths were compared before and after training to straight-and-level-flight (LF) and standard left level turn (LT) scenarios. After the training, the experimental pilots significantly increased dwell time on primary instruments (PIs), reduced randomness in visual search, and fixated on the PIs in shorter times (in the scenario of LT). In terms of piloting, all experimental pilots successfully kept the aircraft control while five control pilots lost control in IMC; significant differences in altitude and rate of climb deviations were observed between groups (in the scenario of LF).

Training Beginners and Experienced Drivers using mobile-based Virtual and Augmented Reality

A developed by authors application for real-time visualization of augmented and virtual reality is considered, which enables to simulate the traffic accidents on a mobile platform with the Android operating system. The application is developed on the basis of the Unity 3D and is able to visualize various types of road accidents and also link them to a terrain, different conditions of the urban environment, and map of the accident statistics. The system has an archive of videos for the accident 3D-scenes. The application interface and implementation features are considered. The subsystems of virtual and augmented reality are described in detail with examples. This application may be used to train novice drivers, learn the rules of the road, and inform experienced drivers about new road junctions. In the system environment, the distribution of the number of traffic violations depending on the driving experience for three groups (no experience, less than 3 years, more than 3 years) was investigated. The study of the usefulness of the system on the Likert scale on 80 cadets of driving schools is presented.

Study on 3D highway digital model for driving simulators

It is an economic and safe way to train novice drivers by means of a simulator as a critical infrastructure where road scenes shall be modeled asapartofvirtually to replace the actual driving conditions but the real-world driving and road situations are conceptualized programmatically based on experiences and knowledge of those designers as far as those existing approaches are concerned. Unlike most previous work, our approach focused on representation of the real-world highway driving circumstances in our driving simulator based on virtual driving experiences; thus, a 3D digital highway model was put forward by utilizing heterogeneous multi-source data extracted from geographic information system. For implementation of the objective of our study, the steps were taken in sequence as follows: (1) 2D road skeleton data were firstly extracted from the remote sensing images by means of a customized operation (including USM sharpening, segmentation, filtering, filling holes, thinning, curve fitting and removal of burrs); (2) 3D surfaces were generated by means of interpolation with a DEM; (3) a 3D digital highway model was reconstructed based on space vectors transformation. In addition, the resulting virtual road model was presented to reproduce the actual driving conditions in a virtual environment for driving simulators.

Train-driving simulator studies: Can novice drivers deliver the goods?

Early research suggests that, in a simulated train-driving environment, unskilled, novice drivers may exhibit comparable behaviour and performance to experienced, professional train drivers after receiving only minimal, task-specific training. However, this conclusion is based on exiguous performance indicators, such as speed limit exceedances, SPAD violations, etc. and considers only limited data. This paper presents further, detailed analysis of the driving performance data obtained from 20 drivers (13 novices and 7 experienced train drivers), who took part in a previous simulator-based research study, utilising more sensitive and perspicuous measures, namely acceleration noise and control actuation. The results indicate that, although both cohorts exhibited similar performance using the original metrics, and would thus support the same conclusions, the manner in which this performance was effected is fundamentally different between groups. Trained novice drivers (mainly comprising students and staff at the University of Nottingham) adopted far more erratic speed control profiles, characterised by longer control actions and frequent switching between power and brake actuation. In contrast, experienced drivers delivered smoother acceleration/braking profiles with more subtle (and shorter) control actions and less variance in speed. We conclude that although utilising trained non-drivers may offer an appealing solution in the absence of professional train drivers during simulator-based research, and their input remains of value, researchers should remain mindful when interpreting results and drawing conclusions from a contingent comprising non-drivers. The work also demonstrates the value of dependent variables such as acceleration noise, and quantitative measures of control actuation, which may offer an insightful portfolio of measures in train-driving research studies.

Effects of a PC-Based Attention Maintenance Training Program on Driver Behavior Can Last Up to Four Months: Simulator Study

There are numerous reports in the literature of an increase in crash risk associated with the performance of a secondary in-vehicle task while driving. Recently, it has been shown that the excessively long glances away from the forward roadway are the primary cause of the crashes that occur while the driver performs in-vehicle tasks. Driver training has proved successful over the short term in teaching novice drivers to limit the duration of their glances inside the vehicle, both in a driving simulator and on the open road. However, it is not known how well such training would work for novice drivers over the longer term. It is also not known whether training both the novice driver and his or her parent would have a positive impact over the long term. This driving simulator study was designed to address these questions. Half of the parent–teenager driver dyads received PC-based forward concentration and attention learning training while the other half completed placebo training. Eye tracking was used to measure in-vehicle glances at secondary tasks while participants navigated drives on a simulator. It was found that training had an effect on novice drivers over the short and long term and that trained novice drivers had glance patterns indistinguishable from those of their experienced parents at the end of 4 months.

Simulator Evaluation of an Integrated Road Safety Training Program

Younger drivers aged 16 to 18 show disproportionately higher crash rates than middle-aged drivers, partly due to a decrement in their abilities to anticipate latent hazards, mitigate hazards and maintain attention on the forward roadway. Training programs have been developed to train novice drivers on each of the specific skills, hazard anticipation (RAPT), hazard mitigation (ACT), and attention maintenance (FOCAL). The current study both measures the effectiveness of a novel integrated training program (SAFE-T) that takes only a third as long to complete as do the three individual training programs and determines if integrating the training of all three higher cognitive skills will yield results comparable to the existing programs. The results indicated that drivers in the SAFE-T-trained group were significantly more likely to anticipate hazards, quicker and more effective at responding to hazards, and more likely to keep glance durations under a critical threshold of 2 seconds as compared to drivers in the placebo-trained group. Moreover, the results suggest that the SAFE-T training program can effectively reduce the time of the overall training and maintain effect sizes comparable to those of the previous programs.

Using Eye Movements to Evaluate a PC-Based Risk Awareness and Perception Training Program on a Driving Simulator

Evaluation of the effects of a PC-based training program on risk perception in a driving simulator. Novice drivers have a fatality rate some eight times higher than that of the most experienced group of drivers, primarily because of the novice driver's inability to predict ahead of time the risks that will appear in the roadway. Current driver education programs, at least those in the United States, do not emphasize the teaching of risk awareness skills to novice drivers. A PC-based risk awareness and perception training program was developed and evaluated. The training involved using plan (top-down) views of 10 risky scenarios that helped novice drivers identify where potential risks were located and what information should be attended. Both the 24 trained novice drivers and 24 untrained novice drivers were evaluated on an advanced driving simulator. The eye movements of both groups of drivers were measured. The evaluation on the driving simulator included both scenarios used in the training and others not used in training. The set of trained novice drivers were almost twice as likely as untrained drivers to fixate appropriately either on the regions where potential risks might appear or on signs that warned of potentially risky situations ahead, both for the scenarios they had encountered in training and for novel scenarios. The PC training program developed, which is portable and can be widely used, has great promise in improving risk perception for novice drivers on the road.

Using Eye Movements in Driving Simulators to Evaluate Effects of PC-Based Risk Awareness Training

Novice drivers have a fatality rate that is ten times higher than the most experienced group of drivers. The primary reason for this is the novice drivers' inability to predict the risks that appear in the roadway ahead. No driver education programs currently exist which teach risk awareness skills to novice drivers across a number of different scenarios. Such a program was developed and then evaluated in two experiments. In the first, 24 novice drivers completed a PC-based risk awareness training program which displayed plan views of 10 different risky scenarios. In the second, the risk awareness of these 24 trained novice drivers and an additional 24 untrained novice drivers was evaluated in an advanced driving simulator using measures of their eye movements. The set of PC trained novice drivers were more likely to recognize risks on the driving simulator, both in those scenarios studied in training and those not seen previously.