The Effects of Driving Habits on Virtual Reality Car Passenger Anxiety

Abstract

We developed an experiment to assess the anxiety of participants when asked to take a tour as passengers in a virtual reality car. For our study, five conditions were developed, based on driving habits (rational, speedy, slow, nervous, and distracted) and participants were exposed to two different virtual environments (urban and rural environments). The driving habits were applied to both the virtual driver and the car. During the experiment, participants were asked to wear the necessary virtual reality equipment and also to respond to a number of questions that concern the somatic and cognitive modality of anxiety. By analyzing the collected data, it was found that the participants’ somatic anxiety did not differ significantly across the five driving habits in both virtual environments. Significant results concerning somatic anxiety were found only when comparing the distracted driving habit in the two different virtual environments. Contrarily, it was found that the participants’ cognitive anxiety was significant across driving habits, but the levels of cognitive anxiety altered based on the environment to which they were exposed. Higher anxiety levels were found when participants were exposed to a crowded urban environment, when compared to a less crowded rural environment, especially for the speedy, nervous, and distracted driving habits. The obtained results are expected to provide insights when developing applications during which the users are seated as passengers in virtual reality cars. Limitations and future work directions are discussed.