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A fixed-base driving simulator study was conducted to compare driver performance and eye glance behavior effects of tasks performed using the voice interface in Ford Motor Company’s SYNC® system versus handheld operation of portable music players and cellular phones. Data were analyzed from a sample of 25 test participants. All test participants were regular SYNC users (but not SYNC developers), though they varied in their familiarity with SYNC functions. During a car-following scenario at highway speeds on the simulator, the participants performed 7 tasks using SYNC’s voice interface and those same 7 tasks with their own handheld music player and cellular phone. The seven tasks under test were: dial a 10-digit number; call a specific person from a phonebook; receive a call while driving; play a specific song; play songs from a specific artist; review (listen to or read) a text message; and select a reply from a list or type a reply to a text message.

This paper investigates the effects on response time of a forward collision event in a repeated-measures design. Repeated-measures designs are often used in forward collision warning (FCW) testing despite concerns that the first exposure creates expectancy effects that may dilute or bias future outcomes. For this evaluation, 32 participants were divided into groups of 8 for an AA, BB, AB, BA design (A= No Warning; B=FCW alert). They drove in a high-fidelity simulator with a visual distraction task. After driving 15 min in a nighttime rural highway environment, a forward collision threat arose during the distraction task (Period 1). A second drive was then run and the forward collision threat was repeated again after ∼10 min (Period 2). The response times from these consecutive events were analyzed.