Blind flight: Do auditory lane departure warnings attract attention or actual guide action?

This paper presents a research project concerning the effect of an auditory lane departure warning in a driving simulator experiment. The experimental design is chosen to induce drowsiness-related lane departures. We only evaluate situations where the driver is losing track because of moments of sleep. This design guarantees that the lane departures are unintentional and unconscious. Literature supports the point of view that the only effect of auditory lane departure warnings is to focus the driver’s attention back onto the street and the steering reaction is a result of the driver’s visual impression of the driving scene. We falsify this statement especially by measuring the time gap between the opening of the eyes after a warning and the steering reaction of the driver. If the reaction is based only on the visual impression, that duration can’t be less than the minimum simple visual reaction time of 0.19 seconds.

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