Effect of Human Factors on Driver Behavior

Driver behavior is one of the most important aspects in the design, development, and application of Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), which can be affected by many factors. To study the effect of human factors in driving, a simulator with Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) and Driver-in-the-Loop (DIL), and an instrumented vehicle were developed to quantitatively measure the driver actions, vehicle status, and the relationship with the vehicle. A comparative analysis of the differences was carried out in a driving simulator and also in the real-world environment. After 33 various driver experiments were conducted, a set of special data-processing programs were also developed to review, extract, and analyze the captured data. Some representative parameters such as time to collision (TTC) and time headway (THW) are adopted to analyze and compare the effect of human factors, which include age, gender, driving experience, workload, education level, and nationality. Finally, to ensure the consistency of classifications based on subjective evaluation and objective experimental data, tests including the completion of a driver behavior questionnaire (DBQ) and real-world driving were conducted with 52 participants and compared. Factor analysis theory was applied to the data processing and characteristic extractions. The results of the study indicated that there were significant differences between the subjective evaluation and objective data, i.e. the subjective evaluation was not reliable enough for algorithm design, although it can be used as a reference.