Advances of Human Factors Research for Future Vehicular Technology

Although automotive human factors research began after the World War II, vehicular technology has developed to adapt the vehicle to the human operator and the requirements of traffic since its inception, with the initial focus being on ease of operation of the steering wheel and brake pedal and methods to provide adequate road illumination at night. For many decades, human factors research mainly concerned making the primary driving tasks (controlling a vehicle and obeying signs and signals) easy to do, providing adequate space for the driver and passengers, mitigating crash injuries, and making secondary controls and displays inside the vehicle easy to use. With the introduction of advanced driver assistance systems and driver information systems in 1980s, there have been a marked increase in the number of studies of driver mental workload as well as more general, quantitative studies of driver behavior, both on real roads and in driving simulators to help design and evaluate those systems. That line of human factors research will continue as vehicle automation and driver information increases. Another line of research concerns driver distraction, with a special concern being the use of mobile devices such as cellular phones. The implementation of driver assistance and information systems has resulted in a shift in automotive human factors research. METHODS for the automotive human factors research have been mostly transferred from psychology and cognitive science, physiology, statistics, and various engineering disciplines. But, as vehicular technology continues to evolve, new methods and theories are needed to address those issues and the human aspects of the vehicular technology so vehicles will be safe, easy to use, and useful. Keywords: Driver distraction; Language: en