Investigation of force and reaction time on car pedals during natural driving.

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]