Investigation of the Impairment on Road Traffic through Animation and Sequential Activation 2021-01-0852

Two research fields are presented in this paper covering new lighting functions.

In the first part, a study is presented that evaluates distraction by light animations. 41 test subjects were involved, and a situation was constructed with several traffic participants and an animated-light vehicle parked so as to be conspicuously within the test subjects’ view. 91% of the test subjects stated they felt little or no distraction or impairment from the light display on the parked car. 29% noticed something conspicuous about the test vehicle. 22% indicated they had noticed the car’s lights flashing as its central locking system was operating. Only 7%—three of the 41 participants—noticed the animations in addition to their traffic monitoring. Of these, two said they didn’t feel disturbed at all by the animations while the third found it only very slightly distracting. Nobody said the distraction or impairment was “neutral”, “little bit” or “strong”. So this study concludes that there is no connection between annoyance, distraction, or impairment with welcome/farewell animations of a vehicle’s front or rear lighting.

In a second study, the direct reaction on the visual support via dynamic turn indicators was investigated. Since the switch-on sequence (“movement”) of a turn indicator gives additional information about the intended direction, the effects on correct detectability and reaction speed have been investigated on various types of dynamic activation. Two different types of dynamic turn indicator activation used in U.S. or ECE were investigated as well as some new ideas for the type and direction of animation. The error rate for static TI detection was five times higher than for a dynamic TI. The reaction time for a dynamic TI was recorded to be 34% quicker than for a standard TI. This shows a massive improvement of nighttime traffic safety by dynamic signal functions.