A vibrating steering wheel combining audio, visual, and haptic technology may be an effective way to avoid missed turns while keeping the driver’s, especially the young driver’s, eyes on the road.
The vibrating haptic feedback steering wheel was found to keep younger drivers’ eyes in particular more focused on the road and less distracted by the navigation system’s display screen. For older, more experience drivers, the haptic feedback reinforces auditory cues to which they are accustomed.
But though the vibrating feedback steering wheel offers general improvement to driver performance and safety, it may also have a downside. Adding an additional sensory input can strain the brain’s capacity to process the information, particularly in older drivers who have established patterns and expectations of their driving.
The findings were recently presented at the International Conference on Pervasive Computing in Newcastle. Vibrating steering wheels are already in use by some carmakers to alert drivers to road hazards. The new haptic steering wheel, however, would be programed to convey far more information. Twenty sensors on the rim of the wheel can be fired in any order.
Researchers monitored their heart rate, pupil size, blink rate, brain wave activity, and other measures of attention and cognitive load while driving using the new haptic steering wheel. The proportion of time that a driver’s eyes were off of the road was significantly less with the combination of auditory and haptic feedback than with the audio and visual feedback typical of most conventional GPS systems—4 percent less for older drivers and 9 percent less for younger drivers.
Anything that keeps the other guy’s eyes on the road, is always a positive move forward in automobile technology.