On-Road Study of Drivers\u2019 Use of Rearview Video Systems (ORSDURVS)

NHTSA-Vehicle Safety Research2008PDFTech ReportMazzae, Elizabeth N.Barickman, Frank S.Baldwin, G H ScottRanney, Thomas A.United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Vehicle Research and Test CenterNational Transportation Research Center, Inc.United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationUnited States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationUnited StatesAutomatic data collection systemsBacking (Driving)Parking guidance systemsNaturalistic driving studiesDOT HS 811 024FinalDriver\u2019s use of rearview video (RV) systems was observed during staged and naturalistic backing maneuvers to determine whether drivers look at the RV display during backing and whether use of the system affects backing behavior. The 37 test participants aged 25 to 60 years were comprised of 12 drivers of RV equipped vehicles, 13 drivers of vehicles equipped with an RV system and a rear parking sensor system (RPS), and 12 drivers of vehicles having no backing aid. All participants had driven and owned a 2007 Honda Odyssey minivan as their primary vehicle for at least 6 months. Participants were told that the purpose of the study was to assess how drivers learn to use the features and functions of a new vehicle. Participants visited the sponsor\u2019s research lab to have unobtrusive video and other data recording equipment installed in their personal vehicles and take a brief test drive. Participants then drove their vehicles for a period of 4 weeks in their normal daily activities while backing maneuvers were recorded. At the end of the 4 weeks, participants returned to the research lab to have the recording equipment removed. Participants took a 2nd test drive, identical to the first, except that when backing out of the garage bay at the end of the drive, an unexpected obstacle appeared behind the vehicle. Drivers with RV made 13 to 14 percent of glances to the RV video screen during initial phases of backing in the staged maneuvers, independent of system presence, drivers spent over 25 percent of backing time looking over their right shoulder in the staged backing maneuvers. Only participants with an RV system who looked at the RV display more than once during the maneuver avoided a crash. Results showed that RV system presence was associated with a statistically significant 28 percent reduction in crashes compared with the unexpected obstacle participants without a system. All 12 participants in the \u201cno system\u201d condition crashed. More participants in the \u2018RV & RPS\u2019 condition crashed (85 percent) than did in the RV condition (58 percent). Substantial benefits of the presence of an RPS system were not seen in the staged obstacle event. Only 5 of 13 participants in the \u201cRV & RPS\u2019 condition received RPS warning indicating the presence of a rear obstacle. Of those 5 participants, 4 crashed. In naturalistic backing maneuvers, the 37 participants made 6145 backing maneuvers. None of the 6145 naturalistic backing events resulted in a significant collision. There were several minor collisions during routine backing with, for example, trash cans and other vehicles. Approximately 61 percent of backing events involved no concurrent driver activity. In real-world backing situations, drivers with RV systems spent 8 to 12 percent of the backing time looking at the RV display. On average, drivers made less than one glance to the console or RV display location when no video display was present, versus 2.17 glances when only the RV system was present and 1.65 glances with RV plus RPS. Overall, drivers looked at least once at the RV display on approximately 65 percent of backing events and looked more than once at RV on approximately 40 percent of backing events. Overall, results of this study revealed that drivers look at rearview video displays during backing maneuvers at least some of the time. Approximately 14 percent of glances in baseline and obstacle events and 10 percent of glances in naturalistic backing maneuvers went to the RV display. In addition, there was no evidence to support the hypothesis that driver\u2019s backing behavior (i.e. speed and acceleration) was influenced by the presence of absence of an RV system in either the staged obstacle event or the naturalistic backing maneuvers. Drivers\u2019 average backing speed in naturalistic backing maneuvers was 2.26 miles per hour.140