Effect analysis of connected information on youth driver's performance in highway driving

The development of the connected vehicles brings convenience to drivers and improves traffic efficiency. However, the connected information might also distract drivers and affect driving performance. Thus, determining the factors that affect the workload and driving performance of drivers with and without connected information is important. Hence, a mixed design between non-information and information group under four longitudinal and two lateral control events was adopted for this driving simulator experiment. The sample consisted of 26 youth participants. The workload of drivers was measured by heart rate and the driving performance indicators consisted of brake reaction time, maximum of deceleration and lateral acceleration. Results showed that the effect of deceleration of which specific vehicle ahead on the heart rate, brake reaction time and maximum of deceleration was not significant in the non-information group. However, the connected information about the deceleration of the farther (fifth and forth) vehicle ahead significantly produced lower workload and better driving performance compared to the information about the closer (second) vehicle ahead. In the lateral events, the connected information did not affect drivers' heart rate, while produced a significantly less maximum of lateral acceleration.