An Investigation of the Effect of Smart Cockpit Layout on Distracted Driving Behavior Based on Real Road Experiments

In the context of vehicle intelligence, smart cockpits are widely used in modern vehicle design. However, with the popularity of smart cockpits, their impact on drivers’ driving behavior have not been evaluated. This study investigated the degree of visual-manual distraction and secondary task performance of drivers by four center screen layouts (single, joint, vertical and horizontal screens) in smart cockpits. Twenty-four drivers used the four smart cockpit layouts to complete three secondary tasks on real roads: a dashboard viewing task, a song switching task and a specified music playing task. Drivers’ visual-manual demands were measured by eye-tracking and task completion performance, and drivers’ cognitive demands were assessed by Likert scales. The results showed that the type of smart cockpit layout had a significant effect on both drivers visual-manual behavior and task performance, with the horizontal cockpit layout having the least effect on driver visual-manual distraction, while the vertical layout resulted in the highest level of visual demand and distraction. Performance on complex secondary tasks was more likely to be affected by the smart cockpit layout than on simple secondary tasks. Cognitive load was not significantly affected by the smart cockpit layout condition.