Differences in steering behaviour between experts, experienced and novice drivers: A driving simulator study

Through the years of automotive development driving safety has been one of the primary areas of concern. Inappropriate driver behaviour and insufficient driving skill are considered the primary causes of road accidents. Advanced driver assist systems are becoming increasingly important in their role of increasing driver safety. However, these technological advancements are not driver specific and often benchmark the average driver performance. A solution is to gain knowledge of the differences in driver skill and their relation to driver performance. In this thesis the steering behaviour of novice, experienced and expert drivers is investigated. Three experiments were analysed to research the differences between these drivers on a demanding racetrack, a double lane change and in a high and low friction cornering manoeuvre. In the first experiment expert drivers showed increased steering activity and differences in path strategy compared to normal drivers to achieve their better performance (faster lap-times and higher average lateral acceleration). Participants with more driving experience achieved better performance in the double lane change task (number of cones hit and deviation from the mid-path) and also in the cornering manoeuvre (faster lap-times and higher average lateral acceleration). Significant differences were found in driver control actions, showing higher steering activity in terms of steering rate, steering jerk and steering reversals for the expert and experienced drivers for the cornering tasks. Furthermore, differences were found in the path strategy and path consistency between the experts and normal drivers. In the double lane change test, novices show incorrect timing of the control action and hence provide late initial steering input and try to over compensate in a later stage, resulting in poor performance in terms of deviation from the mid-path and the number of cones hit. These results confirm previous findings in literature that increased control activity can lead to better performance and may lead to a future classification system of drivers based on their steering behaviour.AutomotivePrecision and Microsystems EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin