Function-Specific Uncertainty Communication in Automated Driving

Conveying the overall uncertainties of automated driving systems was shown to improve trust calibration and situation awareness, resulting in safer takeovers. However, the impact of presenting the uncertainties of multiple system functions has yet to be investigated. Further, existing research lacks recommendations for visualizing uncertainties in a driving context. The first study outlined in this publication investigated the implications of conveying function-specific uncertainties. The results of the driving simulator study indicate that the effects on takeover performance depends on driving experience, with less experienced drivers benefitting most. Interview responses revealed that workload increments are a major inhibitor of these benefits. Based on these findings, the second study explored the suitability of 11 visual variables for an augmented reality-based uncertainty display. The results show that particularly hue and animation-based variables are appropriate for conveying uncertainty changes. The findings inform the design of all displays that show content varying in urgency.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRAFFIC SIGN COMPREHENSION AND RISKY TRAFFIC BEHAVIORS

The current study investigates the relationship between risky traffic behaviors and traffic sign comprehension (TSC). It is hypothesized that, as traffic sign comprehension increases, unsafe traffic behaviors decrease. The data were collected online through Qualtrics from 275 participants, 177 of whom were drivers. The questionnaire package included 25 open-ended traffic sign questions, Pedestrian Behavior Scale, Mini-Driver Behavior Questionnaire with 3 additional aggressive violation items, and a demographic information form. The results indicated that TSC was significantly related to reported driver errors and lapses after controlling for age and gender. In addition, pedestrian-related TSC was significantly related to reported pedestrian transgressions, lapses, aggressive behaviors, and positive behaviors after controlling for age, gender, driver's license, and driving experience. Generally, the results were consistent with the expectations: the better that road users (drivers and pedestrians) understand traffic signs, the fewer drivers and pedestrians reported unsafe behaviors (errors and lapses for drivers; transgressions, aggressive behaviors, and lapses for pedestrians), and the more pedestrians reported positive behaviors. This finding can be explained by the fact that as the need of people to understand traffic signs increases, they avoid behaviors that will lead to accidents in traffic. For this reason, it can be predicted that comprehensively introducing children to traffic signs from an early age will contribute positively to road safety.

Traffic Crimes and risky driving: The role of personality and driving anger

The current study aims to examine the influence of personality traits (alternative Zuckerman model) and driving anger in the explanation of risky driving style in individuals convicted for road safety offences (N = 245), using as a basis an adaptation of the context-mediated model. This is a transversal, descriptive study designed to be implemented by means of surveys, in which took part 245 men convicted of road safety offences from five prisons in Galicia (a region in northwestern Spain) took part. The average age of the participants was 38.73 years (Sx-9.61), with a range between 18 and 64 years. All participants had three or more years of driving experience. Our data shows that the Impulsive-Sensation Seeking (Imp-SS) personality trait had a direct and positive effect on dangerous driving, while the Activity (Act) trait had a direct but negative effect. The Aggression-Hostility (Agg-Host) trait, in turn, influenced the risky driving style, but not directly, but by raising driving anger levels, so it acted as a powerful mediator between the Aggression-Hostility (Agg-Hos) trait and the risky driving style. In general, our research partially replicates and expands previous findings regarding the model used, the aggression-hostility personality trait (Agg-Host) was placed in the distal context, driving anger in the proximal context, while age and personality traits Activity (Act) and Impulsive-Sensation Seeking (Imp-SS) were direct predictors. The results of this study may have practical implications for the detection and rehabilitation of offenders and penalties for road safety offences.

Security Guarantee for Vehicular Message Transmission Based on Dynamic Social Attributes

Effective message forwarding between vehicles can reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents and improve the driving experience. Vehicle clustering can improve message utilization, but attackers in the network pose a serious threat to message forwarding. Based on vehicle clustering, we propose a message forwarding strategy for Vehicular Ad hoc Network. Specifically, the vehicles are clustered based on their directions and speeds. Besides, the friendship of vehicles is evaluated in terms of the interaction friendship and reference friendship. Based on the friendship of vehicles, the optimal vehicle can be selected as the cluster head. Thereafter, the double key technology is designed to encrypt vehicular messages such that the messages can be forwarded more safely and efficiently. The analysis results show that the proposed strategy can effectively improve the message delivery rate, reduce the message leakage rate, and improve the network performance.

Americar Dreams (An Introduction)

Even though Baudrillard’s catchy piece of advice as for the most effective method of exploring America’s landscapes (both real and imaginary) comes from his postmodernist travelogue limited to its titular country, it is probably difficult for anyone interested in contemporary car cultures not to extend Baudrillard’s praise of the driving experience and perceive it in cognitive rather than transportation terms, not necessarily bounded by national borders. True, American driving culture and all its related contexts—its remarkable history, its contribution to social mobility, its spectacular cars, its mythologies, the list goes on and on—is not only the oldest one historically, but—given its ties with American life-styles, politics, social stratification and the overall consumerist mindset—also the most extreme one. From Henry Ford’s Model T storming millions of American households at the beginning of the 20th century to Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster shot into space in the second decade of the following one, cars have shaped American horizons, both private and collective, like no other machine. This introductory text presents the concept of the present issue of RIAS as well as the concepts underlying its feature texts.

Can ADAS Distract Driver’s Attention? An RGB-D Camera and Deep Learning-Based Analysis

Driver inattention is the primary cause of vehicle accidents; hence, manufacturers have introduced systems to support the driver and improve safety; nonetheless, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) must be properly designed not to become a potential source of distraction for the driver due to the provided feedback. In the present study, an experiment involving auditory and haptic ADAS has been conducted involving 11 participants, whose attention has been monitored during their driving experience. An RGB-D camera has been used to acquire the drivers’ face data. Subsequently, these images have been analyzed using a deep learning-based approach, i.e., a convolutional neural network (CNN) specifically trained to perform facial expression recognition (FER). Analyses to assess possible relationships between these results and both ADAS activations and event occurrences, i.e., accidents, have been carried out. A correlation between attention and accidents emerged, whilst facial expressions and ADAS activations resulted to be not correlated, thus no evidence that the designed ADAS are a possible source of distraction has been found. In addition to the experimental results, the proposed approach has proved to be an effective tool to monitor the driver through the usage of non-invasive techniques.

Study on Risk Tolerance of Passenger Car Drivers Aged 18–25

A universal problem of the impact of behaviour of less experienced young drivers on the rate of road accidents referring to the Russian Federation in comparison to other countries.In the Russian Federation, in recent years, there has been a decrease in the total number of road accidents and in the number of deaths in them. This speaks of the effective preventive work of the traffic police and other related services, but at the same time, a fairly large number of car accidents persists.One problem is the high incidence of accidents among inexperienced young drivers. According to research conducted in different countries, the likelihood of road accidents is especially high during the first year after obtaining a driver’s license. The overwhelming majority of drivers responsible for road accidents with less than six months of driving experience belong to the age category of 18–25 years. One of the main reasons for the increased likelihood of road accidents is their excessive risk inclination.It is obvious that risky driving is common in young people, which also affects the operation of the car. Risk inclination is directly related to the number of errors made, which significantly increases the likelihood of an accident.Objective of the work was to assess the risk tolerance among drivers aged 18–25 years. Research methods comprise a survey of young people of the indicated age and the analysis of the results obtained. The figures obtained during the survey indicate that the majority of respondents (82 %) have a «mean level of risk tolerance». But there are also quite a few «risky drivers» (15 %). Moreover, these 15 % are in the youngest age group from 18 to 21 years old. Based on the results of the work, it is proposed: during training at a driving school, the future driver should receive not only theoretical knowledge and practical driving lessons, but also undergo a psychological analysis to determine his fitness to participate in road traffic; introduce certain restrictions «for young and novice drivers» into the Road Traffic Regulations. It is necessary to limit the permitted power of the car and the permissible speed (adoption of a multiplying coefficient for fines for speeding), prohibit the use of the car in the dark and in difficult road conditions, as well as passenger transportation.

Insights into Factors Affecting Traffic Accident Severity of Novice and Experienced Drivers: A Machine Learning Approach

Traffic accidents have significant financial and social impacts. Reducing the losses caused by traffic accidents has always been one of the most important issues. This paper presents an effort to investigate the factors affecting the accident severity of drivers with different driving experience. Special focus was placed on the combined effect of driving experience and age. Based on our dataset (traffic accidents that occurred between 2005 and 2021 in Shaanxi, China), CatBoost model was applied to deal with categorical feature, and SHAP (Shapley Additive exPlanations) model was used to interpret the output. Results show that accident cause, age, visibility, light condition, season, road alignment, and terrain are the key factors affecting accident severity for both novice and experienced drivers. Age has the opposite impact on fatal accident for novice and experienced drivers. Novice drivers younger than 30 or older than 55 are prone to suffer fatal accident, but for experienced drivers, the risk of fatal accident decreases when they are young and increases when they are old. These findings fill the research gap of the combined effect of driving experience and age on accident severity. Meanwhile, it can provide useful insights for practitioners to improve traffic safety for novice and experienced drivers.

THE INFLUENCE OF DEPENDENCES OF PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DRIVERS

The article analyzes the "man-machine-environment" system in relation to the psychophysiological characteristics of the driver - "human operator". The methods of diagnosing the psychophysiological characteristics of drivers were analyzed. The dependencies between the parameters of psychophysiological characteristics were established: complex visual-motor reaction and emotional stability (Pearson correlation coefficient r = -0.7), as well as the correlation between emotional stability and the level of perception of speed and distance (r = 0.5). The psychophysiological characteristics at different stages of the driving experience were revealed and practical recommendations were formulated for their development.