Paris-Est University, Marne la Vallee, France.
Hum Factors. 2018 Aug;60(5):719-734. doi: 10.1177/0018720818769253. Epub 2018 Apr 17.
The aim of this study was to investigate steering control in a low-cost driving simulator with and without a virtual vehicle cab.
In low-cost simulators, the lack of a vehicle cab denies driver access to vehicle width, which could affect steering control, insofar as locomotor adjustments are known to be based on action-scaled visual judgments of the environment.
Two experiments were conducted in which steering control with and without a virtual vehicle cab was investigated in a within-subject design, using cornering and straight-lane-keeping tasks.
Driving around curves without vehicle cab information made drivers deviate more from the lane center toward the inner edge in right (virtual cab = 4 ± 19 cm; no cab = 42 ± 28 cm; at the apex of the curve, p < .001) but not in left curves. More lateral deviation from the lane center toward the edge line was also found in driving without the virtual cab on straight roads (virtual cab = 21 ± 28 cm; no cab = 36 ± 27 cm; p < .001), whereas driving stability and presence ratings were not affected. In both experiments, the greater lateral deviation in the no-cab condition led to significantly more time driving off the lane.
The findings strongly suggest that without cab information, participants underestimate the distance to the right edge of the car (in contrast to the left edge) and thus vehicle width. This produces considerable differences in the steering trajectory.
Providing a virtual vehicle cab must be encouraged for more effectively capturing drivers' steering control in low-cost simulators.
本研究旨在探讨有无虚拟车舱的低成本驾驶模拟器中的转向控制。
在低成本模拟器中，缺乏车舱会使驾驶员无法获得车辆宽度的信息，这可能会影响转向控制，因为众所周知，运动调整是基于对环境的行动尺度视觉判断。
本研究在一项被试内设计中进行了两项实验，分别研究了有无虚拟车舱的转向控制，使用弯道和直线保持任务。
在没有车舱信息的情况下，驾驶车辆转弯时，驾驶员会更多地偏离车道中心向内侧（有虚拟车舱 = 4 ± 19 cm；无车舱 = 42 ± 28 cm；在弯道顶点，p <.001），但在向左转弯时则不然。在没有虚拟车舱的情况下，在直道上行驶时，驾驶员也会更多地偏离车道中心向边缘线（有虚拟车舱 = 21 ± 28 cm；无车舱 = 36 ± 27 cm；p <.001），但驾驶稳定性和存在感评分不受影响。在这两个实验中，无车舱条件下的较大侧向偏差导致更多的时间驶离车道。
这些发现强烈表明，在没有车舱信息的情况下，参与者会低估车辆右侧（相对于左侧）与道路边缘的距离，从而低估车辆的宽度。这会导致转向轨迹产生显著差异。
为了更有效地捕捉低成本模拟器中驾驶员的转向控制，必须鼓励提供虚拟车舱。
