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Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University recently conducted an SAE sponsored research study investigating directional stereotypes of six types of automobile controls: power mirrors, power windows, manual windows, stalks, generic controls, and power door locks. The objective was to determine stereotype strength and the reasons for the strengths. Two hundred subjects participated in this study. This paper provides an overview of the results of the study and recommendations made therefrom.

Approximately 28,000 crashes involving combination unit trucks occur each year when they are making lane changes, merges, or turns. One contributing factor in these crashes is inadequate visibility for truck drivers. Recent advances in video technology have heightened the prospect of improving commercial vehicle safety by improving drivers' vision around the truck. For such video systems to be implemented on heavy trucks, the systems/driver interface should be demonstrated as viable through research. This paper presents the Camera/Video Imaging Systems (C/VISs) developed at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), the methodology used to test them, and some results obtained.

The effects of various combinations of vehicle steering torque gradient, control sensitivity, and lateral acceleration response time on driver-vehicle performance were investigated. Three subjects performed regulation tasks on two facilities (driving simulator and variable response vehicle) under identical disturbance inputs. The performance trends were essentially the same on both facilities, and significant interactions among the three vehicle characteristics were observed.

The effects of changes in understeer, control sensitivity, and location of the lateral aerodynamic center of pressure of a typical passenger vehicle on the driver's opinion and on the performance of the driver-vehicle system were studied in the moving-base driving simulator at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Twelve subjects with no prior experience on the simulator and no special driving skills performed regulation tasks in the presence of both random and step wind gusts. The lower weights and moments of inertia of future passenger vehicles can be expected to change the effect of wind gusts making the evaluation of aerodynamic and control response characteristics on closed-loop wind disturbance regulation a matter of increased interest.

The effects of physical motion and vehicle responsiveness on driver performance were investigated with a moving-base driving simulator. Twenty-four subjects were divided into four motion conditions ranging from no motion to roll plus yaw plus attenuated lateral translation. Each motion group drove the simulated vehicle with three levels of tire cornering stiffness. The presence of motion reduced driver control activity and path keeping deviations, but the effects of changing vehicle responsiveness were not disguised by reducing the number of motion cues. The results suggest, however, that motion cues become more important as driving maneuvers become more extreme.

This paper describes the effects of variations in vehicle response characteristics on driver-vehicle disturbance responses using a moving base driving simulator. Two exploratory studies are discussed, one dealing with vehicle transient response characteristics and the other with steady state characteristics. Close correspondence with full-scale data reported by others indicates that dynamically realistic simulators can be effective research tools. The flexibility of the simulator has facilitated the collection of other preliminary data which extend the full-scale findings. Considerably more effort will be needed, however, before strong arguments either for or against specific parameter boundaries can be made.

Large trucks were involved in more than 26,000 crashes between April 2001 and December 2003 as a result of making lane changes, merges, and turns [1]. As an alternative to mirrors (surrogate system), or to be used in combination with mirrors (enhancement system), the industry has been developing Camera/Video Imaging Systems (C/VISs) directed toward improving visibility to the sides and rear of heavy vehicles. The current study describes development of an Enhanced C/VIS (E-C/VIS) directed at improving visibility in less favorable environmental conditions, such as nighttime and inclement weather.