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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 compares the results from three human factors studies conducted in a motion-based simulator in 2008, 2014 and 2023, to highlight the trends in driver's response to Forward Collision Warning (FCW). The studies were motivated by the goal to develop an effective HMI (Human-Machine Interface) strategy that enables the required driver's response to FCW while minimizing the level of annoyance of the feature. All three studies evaluated driver response to a baseline-FCW and no-FCW conditions. Additionally, the 2023 study included two modified FCW chime variants: a softer FCW chime and a fading FCW chime. Sixteen (16) participants, balanced for gender and age, were tested for each group in all iterations of the studies. The participants drove in a high-fidelity simulator with a visual distraction task (number reading). After driving 15 minutes in a nighttime rural highway environment, a surprise forward collision threat arose during the distraction task.