Effective instruction method on self-awareness of risks for drivers

This study showed how hazardous scenes recorded by vehicle driving recorders are introduced to the driving lessons with the simulators. First, we investigated which trigger is useful for automatic extraction of dangerous interruption scenes from large amounts of recorded driving data. It was implicated that the relative speed to the leading car and the number of checks of the side mirror before the lane change were candidates of triggers. Secondly, an experiment was performed to examine what kind of presentation method of replayed scenes may have an effect on improving drivers’ realization of the risk in their driving through the lessons. Three perspectives in replaying the scenes were compared: a bird’s-eye view, a sideways view, and a looking-from-behind view. Young and elderly drivers participated in the experiment. As a result, the bird’s-eye image of driver’s own driving data lengthened the distance to the oncoming car on the right lane in lane changes for the young drivers. In contrast, the replay of their driving from the looking-from-behind perspective made the elderly drivers keep the distance to the car behind. As for presenting the replayed scenes of interruption in the driving lessons, it was suggested that the bird’s-eye image of driver’s own driving data may be most effective for inhibiting risky interruptions while the effect might be limited for the elderly drivers.