Support for NHTSA Visual-Manual Guidelines: Expert Review of the Visual Occlusion Method and How It Compares to Driver Eye-Glance Behavior

The occlusion method is one of the verification test alternatives allowed under the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers guidelines to manage visual demand of certain in-vehicle devices. Since the time those guidelines were published, additional research has become available on the advantages, disadvantages, and considerations of using the occlusion method in this context. The current investigation reviewed this additional research and then asked several occlusion experts about their opinions regarding topics such as method parameter values, test settings, validity, and usefulness of results. Experts’ answers were summarized and suggested that there is consensus about some aspects of the occlusion method and disagreement over other aspects. These findings are discussed in the context of including the occlusion method as a test alternative in future versions of visual-manual device design guidelines.

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