Driving Simulators for Human Vehicle Interaction Design

Abstract

The interaction human-vehicle, as well as driver's behavior are subject long debated in the automotive engineering domain. Driving simulators have an extraordinary important role allowing research that would not be possible to study in real world scenarios. A driver uses his sensory inputs to obtain the required input to base his decision on. The bandwidth of the required input signal should be in accordance to the driver's task. For simple tasks, like turning on the screen wipers or direction indicator, low frequency information is sufficient. High frequency information is required when cornering on a busy road or when driving in relatively limit situations. The optimal configuration of each sub-system remains a significant cause for debate and still poses a major challenge when considering the ability of simulators to extract realistic driver behavior. If a difference is observed between real and virtual conditions, the factors specifically cause these differences are very difficult to be explained.