The Impact of Gamifications and Serious Games on Driving under Unfamiliar Traffic Regulations

Abstract

Drivers face many challenges when driving under unfamiliar traffic regulations, which may lead to a reduction in road safety. The need to adjust to different traffic rules could be a major factor toward a safer drive. Gamification is a promising way to enhance the user engagement in non-game tasks. In this paper, we hypothesize that gamification can improve driving performance and minimize the number of driving errors when driving under unfamiliar traffic regulations and thus enhance road safety. A game was designed to provide gamification elements in a simulated driving environment with unfamiliar traffic regulations where the players were motivated to reach the target with no errors. In the experiments, 14 participants who were not familiar with the designed traffic regulations were asked to drive a car simulator in two scenarios. The first scenario had no gamification elements, whereas the second one included gamification elements. The results indicated that gamification significantly helped the participants to drive in the correct traffic flow with the proper use of vehicle configuration. Our findings show that gamified simulation is a reasonable method to adjust the required driving performance and behavior to safely drive under unfamiliar traffic regulations.

Influence of a Serious Video Game on the Behavior of Drivers in the Face of Automobile Incidents

“…In addition, it was evident that of the 100% average action errors of the control group, the average of the experimental group equals 56.25%; this proved a 43.75% reduction of action errors after implementation. The results were generally comparable with the research [8], which presented a 13-1 decrease in the number of action errors. It should be noted that the author Useche [18] defines action errors as errors in the execution planned by the driver, which can manifest themselves in terms of observation, execution, or incorrect judgments and do not involve intentional actions.…”

“…Regarding the main goal, which sought to improve the behavior of drivers in the event of incidents through the use of a serious video game in Trujillo in 2023, it was determined that it did indeed improve the behavior of drivers. This was evidenced by the decrease in the average of all indicators measured; the results are similar to the research [8], in which the effectiveness of gamification elements in driving simulators on road safety in unknown traffic situations was assessed and proven.…”

“…As background, the research [8] titled "The impact of gamification and serious games on driving under unknown traffic rules", aimed to evaluate the impact of gamification elements in driving simulators on road safety in unknown traffic situations. A quantitative and qualitative experimental approach was used, with a sample of 14 people.…”