Recovering from Unexpected Lane Drifts

Abstract

A desktop driving simulator was used to investigate how drivers react to an unexpected lane drift. Participants drove scenarios in which vision was occluded for three to seven 1-second intervals, in which a wind gust pushed them laterally during the final occlusion in a series. No-task and an odd/even digit task condition were used to vary the cognitive load during the occlusions. Steering angle and lateral lane position profiles were used to identify steering reaction times and time to regain lateral lane stability after a lane drift. Results showed that drivers were quicker to countersteer and regain lateral lane position stability in the digit task occlusion condition.