Passenger-Driver Distinguishing Test for Pokémon Go

Distracted driving while gaming is a serious hazard especially for young drivers. Increasing popularity of augmented reality games may increase distracted driving incidents. The main purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of an identification test to differentiate between drivers and passengers to prevent drivers from playing augmented reality games while driving to reduce distracted driving incidents. We hypothesized that increased cognitive burden will reduce vigilance on the secondary task which will reduce attention and increase the risk associated with the secondary task. An experiment with a driving simulator tested university students’ performance to evaluate the efficacy of the distinguishing test. The results show that the test shows promise to distinguish between drivers and passengers. Such tests can be used in applications when users perform two tasks that require the same modality leading to decreased performance in both tasks.