Effect of passenger presence towards driving performance level using kss and cnc indicators

Abstract

Passenger presence does affect car driver performance while driving. However, a different type of conversation between driver and passenger might bring different effects on the performance. This car driver's performance can be measured by the level of sleepiness and the number of accidents experienced by the driver while driving. The level of sleepiness was obtained from the measurement of the driver's alert level using the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale. Furthermore, the number of accidents was obtained from the measurement of the performance level using the Crash-No Crash indicator. This study applied three experiments on a car simulation, i.e., drive alone, drive with a passive passenger, and drive with an active passenger. Results showed that driving alone experienced the highest level of sleepiness than others while driving with active passengers experienced the highest number of accidents than others.