Search

The article discussed the development of a driving simulator for pedal error study among Malaysian drivers. Instead of conducting the naturalistic driving study, the driving simulation method is used in this study to investigate the pedal error situation. Several obstacle avoidance tasks are embedded in the driving simulation application developed to determine the driver's foot placement on pedal, also face reaction during normal driving and emergency braking situation. Since the study is primarily concerned with automatic transmission vehicles, a driving simulator that simulates an automatic transmission vehicle has been developed. Malaysian drivers aged between 20 to 65 years old, with minimum of two years driving experience are the targeted participants in this study. In order to conduct the driving simulation study, a driving simulator developed is equipped with instruments such as cameras, screen monitor, steering wheel, and instrumented car pedals with force pressure sensor. Based on the result, the cameras captured the driver's foot placement on pedals and face reaction clearly while driving the simulation car. The instrumented car pedals with force pressure sensor could detect the force applied by the drivers when they stepped on the pedals. The preliminary study shows that the simulation application run smoothly, also it shows the capability of the driving simulator and the driving simulation application developed to perform the driving simulation study for the driver's response during obstacle avoidance task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road accidents become the most severe problem in traffic accidents nowadays. One of the factors that contribute to the road accident is pedal error. Furthermore, pedal errors due to sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) provide a critical problem among people regardless of age. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the response of emergency braking for one and two-legged drivers using a customized force sensor. A total of 28 participants volunteered in a naturalistic driving test for emergency brakes at the proper car track provided. Prior to that, a short questionnaire was prepared to understand the respondent characteristics quantitatively. In this study, a velostat-based custom force sensor was installed on the test car pedals. The force data was then transferred to the computer via the connecting wire. In order to create an emergency situation, light and audio cues were placed on the car dashboard and connected to the car radio, respectively. When the emergency indicators turn on, the driver will brake immediately while force is exerted on the pedal, and response time is taken promptly. The findings of this study show that the maximum force applied on the car pedals by one-legged is higher compared to the two-legged drivers. Meanwhile, the fastest reaction time for the drivers to apply the brake when there was an emergency situation was 185 ms while the slowest was 320 ms. In conclusion, the pressure sensor developed is promising to use for the natural driving test and can be adapted for other vehicle types and segments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]