Study Of Characteristics Of Driver Multi-channel Distraction Based On In-vehicle Information Systems

The driver distraction has became an important cause of traffic accidents, andvehicle information system is one of the important resource that cause distracteddriving. In order to reduce the distracted driving that caused by the vehicleinformation system,multi-channel distracted features will be intensive study，andthen reasonable suggestion would be put forward for the sake of playing a positiverole when use these devices, that would be of great significance of improving thedriving safety.Firstly, the multi-channel distraction of driver were defined based on themulti-resource theory and the visual, action and cognitive channels were chosen asthe study object driver distraction channels. The car radio, CD, MP3andnavigation system were chosen as the studying object of in-vehicle informationsystem. The indicators and measurement methods of driver’s visual, physical andof cognitive channel distraction were determined. Eye tracking system, vidiconand automobile data recorder were utilized to test distracted driving.Secondly, the complexity of traffic environment was demarcated andclassified using evaluation indexes. General theory of statistics was adopted toanalyze regulation of driver’s visual, physical and of cognitive distractioncharacteristics as well as significance testing under different traffic environment.It turned out that the influence on driver’s distraction which caused by a samein-vehicle information system under different traffic environment were obviouslydifferent. In the meantime, different in-vehicle information system had differentdistraction influence on drivers under the similar traffic environment. In addition,the degree of distraction for the drivers would be different because of theoperational complexity.Thirdly, questionnaire method was utilized to self-assess the cognitivedistraction of drivers caused by in-vehicle information system. Results show thatdrivers often can’t assess the cognitive distraction and the deviation would bedifferent for different in-vehicle information system as well as the same in-vehicleinformation equipment under different traffic conditions. At last, The fuzzy clusteranalysis was adopted to establish evaluation model of drivers’ distracted features,in which the impact on drivers’ distractions that caused by vehicle informationsystem were taken into account. In addition, the suggestions and countermeasureswhich can reduce the distractions impact caused by in-vehicle information systemswere proposed.