The role of visual and non-visual feedback in a vehicle steering task

This paper investigates vehicle steering control, focusing on the task of lane changing and the role of different sources of sensory feedback. In experiment 1, participants carried out lane changes in a fully instrumented, motion based simulator. Despite the high level of realism participants were unable to complete the task in the absence of visual feedback. Experiment 2 confirmed this result over a wide range of vehicle velocities. In experiment 3 drivers used a fixed based force-feedback steering wheel to simulate the steering movements required to change lanes and turn a corner in the absence of visual feedback. Despite fundamental differences in the two tasks, behavior was remarkably similar, confirming their misconception of how to execute a lane-change maneuver. In the last experiment participants, now using a fixed-based simulator, were given visual feedback during controlled time intervals. Normal steering behavior could be restored using brief but suitably timed exposure to visual information. Our d ata suggest that vehicle steering control can be characterized as a series of unidirectional, open-loop steering movements, each punctuated by a brief visual update