EFFECTS OF 'GIDS' MESSAGES ON DRIVER WORKLOAD: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

As a consequence of recent technological developments a large number of electronic tools have become available to automobile drivers. Examples are navigation systems, Collision Avoidance Systems (CAS) and Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC). To prevent driver overload, it is important that these driver support systems only provide the driver with information at times that the driver is able to pay attention to it, or when the information is urgent. In order to do so, an intelligent support system needs to assess the loading effects of different messages and traffic situations. In a laboratory experiment the relative workload of different messages of the 'GIDS' driver support system was quantified by means of a reaction time study. The present study provides an ordering of 'GIDS'-messages in terms of workload. Visual (navigation) messages were less loading but resulted in worse performance on a secondary tracking task. Auditory navigation messages and other auditory messages with the most informative part at the beginning were associated with less load than those with informative part at the end. (A) For the covering abstract of the report see IRRD 874607.