ASSESSING THE IMPLICATIONS OF AGE ON APPLYING VISUAL-MANUAL DISTRACTION GUIDELINES TO PORTABLE TELEMATICS INTERACTIONS

摘要

The visual-manual distraction guidelines from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommend a set of design references to automotive industry. While the guidelines implicitly recognize that age is likely to be an important variable in device interaction, little is currently established regarding how a driver's age is likely to interact with the visual metrics specified in the guidelines. The present study provides data on driver glance behaviors associated with common portable telematics and an embedded infotainment system in a sample of 46 adults relatively equally distributed across three age ranges (20-29, 40-49, and 60-69 years). Participants were asked to engage with three types of secondary tasks while driving a simulator: 1) phone dialing using both a flip-phone with mechanical buttons and a smartphone with a touchscreen, 2) address entry with a portable GPS, and 3) radio tuning. The results show a progression involving longer task completion time and extended visual engagement / demand for most tasks with age. It is clear in this data that NHTSA's percentage of glances longer than 2 s and total glance duration metrics are markedly impacted by age. These findings reinforce the importance of considering older drivers in the early phases of design development and assessment.