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Good intentions: drivers’ decisions to engage with technology on the road and in a driving simulator

Good intentions: drivers’ decisions to engage with technology on the road and in a driving simulator
Good intentions: drivers’ decisions to engage with technology on the road and in a driving simulator

Distraction-related accidents are, more often than not, due to the drivers’ voluntarily engagement with a secondary task. Therefore, the strategic management of in-vehicle tasks and the drivers’ decision to engage with them is an important aspect of the driver distraction phenomenon that needs to be addressed. While the consequences of distracting tasks are often assessed in settings where the risk of engaging is reduced (i.e., simulators), the drivers’ decision to engage with secondary tasks is often ignored. This study assessed the drivers’ decision to engage with secondary tasks using verbal protocols to provide insights into the drivers’ intention within a naturalistic driving setting, on the road, and in a simulated driving environment. This enabled an understanding of when drivers engage with technological distractions, why they choose to do so, as well as how they may go about doing it. Different road types were found to differentially impact the drivers’ intention to engage, as did the types of secondary tasks, with some tasks having an increased willingness to engage compared to others. Factors that increase and/or reduce the likelihood of engaging are presented. The decisions that drivers made to engage with secondary tasks in the simulator were found to correlate strongly to their decision to so on the road. This provides support for the use of simulators when assessing the drivers’ decision to engage with secondary tasks. The effect of verbal protocols on the drivers’ speed metrics was assessed to determine how they may have affected their driving performance.

Driver distraction, In-vehicle technology, Naturalistic decision making, Verbal protocol analysis
1435-5558
1-23
Parnell, Katie J.
3f21709a-403b-40e1-844b-0c0a89063b7b
Stanton, Neville A.
351a44ab-09a0-422a-a738-01df1fe0fadd
Plant, Katherine L.
3638555a-f2ca-4539-962c-422686518a78
Parnell, Katie J.
3f21709a-403b-40e1-844b-0c0a89063b7b
Stanton, Neville A.
351a44ab-09a0-422a-a738-01df1fe0fadd
Plant, Katherine L.
3638555a-f2ca-4539-962c-422686518a78

Parnell, Katie J., Stanton, Neville A. and Plant, Katherine L. (2018) Good intentions: drivers’ decisions to engage with technology on the road and in a driving simulator. Cognition, Technology and Work, 1-23. (doi:10.1007/s10111-018-0504-0).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Distraction-related accidents are, more often than not, due to the drivers’ voluntarily engagement with a secondary task. Therefore, the strategic management of in-vehicle tasks and the drivers’ decision to engage with them is an important aspect of the driver distraction phenomenon that needs to be addressed. While the consequences of distracting tasks are often assessed in settings where the risk of engaging is reduced (i.e., simulators), the drivers’ decision to engage with secondary tasks is often ignored. This study assessed the drivers’ decision to engage with secondary tasks using verbal protocols to provide insights into the drivers’ intention within a naturalistic driving setting, on the road, and in a simulated driving environment. This enabled an understanding of when drivers engage with technological distractions, why they choose to do so, as well as how they may go about doing it. Different road types were found to differentially impact the drivers’ intention to engage, as did the types of secondary tasks, with some tasks having an increased willingness to engage compared to others. Factors that increase and/or reduce the likelihood of engaging are presented. The decisions that drivers made to engage with secondary tasks in the simulator were found to correlate strongly to their decision to so on the road. This provides support for the use of simulators when assessing the drivers’ decision to engage with secondary tasks. The effect of verbal protocols on the drivers’ speed metrics was assessed to determine how they may have affected their driving performance.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 5 July 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 13 July 2018
Keywords: Driver distraction, In-vehicle technology, Naturalistic decision making, Verbal protocol analysis

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 422595
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/422595
ISSN: 1435-5558
PURE UUID: ad069de2-b954-486d-a0b2-5eb820b2b5a2
ORCID for Katie J. Parnell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5962-4892
ORCID for Neville A. Stanton: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8562-3279
ORCID for Katherine L. Plant: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4532-2818

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 26 Jul 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:36

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