Experts at Loughborough’s Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute (ESRI) have been looking at drivers’ reactions to different alarm systems, to determine which make driving safest.
John Richardson, of ESRI, said: “We do lots of work relating to car safety, although it usually involves looking at the structure of the vehicle. In this case, we were looking at driver behaviour and how this new alarm system will work to make vehicles safer.
“The idea is to make a system that people trust and want to use.”
Researchers looked at drivers’ responses when faced with early warning alarms, just-in-time alarms and unreliable alarms. They also looked at how drivers’ behaviour was affected by the speed of the car in front.
Overall, drivers responded better to early alarms. Trust in these alarms stayed high even if the system occasionally gave ‘false’ alarms.
SOURCE: Loughborough press release.