Study Suggests That HUD Tech May Actually Reduce Driving Safety

Zothecula writes: Having a heads-up display constantly feed you information while cruising down the road may make you feel like a jet pilot ready to avoid any potential danger but recent findings suggest otherwise. Studies done at the University of Toronto show that the HUD multi-tasking method of driving a vehicle is dangerous. "Drivers need to divide their attention to deal with this added visual information," said Department of Psychology professor Ian Spence, who led the research. "Not only will drivers have to concentrate on what’s happening on the road around them as they’ve always done, they’ll also have to attend to whatever warning pops up on the windshield in front of them."

Comments

The problem...

[Anonymous Coward]

IF you have some kind of info 'popping up', there's your problem there. Show speed. Show specific information. Do not constantly CHANGE that information to make drivers deal with new data.

Re:The problem...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually I think that was the point. A "big red box" popping up is going to distract the driver more and they are going to be paying attention to the box and will miss seeing the moose.

Look outside, not inside

[bbands]

My wife's 'vette has a hud in it and the first thing I do when I drive the car is turn the hud off. When flying the best advice is to keep your head 'out of the cockpit', in other words scanning the skies around you. New pilots' are always glued to the instruments, mature pilots eyes are focused outside except for quick scans of the instruments.

Re:Look outside, not inside

[tlambert]

Show me a pilot that has to rely on their instruments and I'll show a pilot who can't fly.

Contrarywise, show me a pilot who *can* rely on their instruments, and I'll show you one who can land at SFO in the fog.

Re:Look outside, not inside

[Dzimas]

Show me a pilot that has to rely on their instruments and I'll show a pilot who can't fly.

You're not a pilot, obviously. Every airline pilot has an instrument rating to ensure they can fly safely without external reference to the ground and horizon (when flying through cloud, a snowstorm, fog, or even at night over a sparsely populated area between cloud layers. You (usually) need an instrument rating to land through cloud and when conditions are below visual limits.

It is almost impossible to stay oriented in thick cloud without using instruments, because one of the side-effects of turning in an aircraft is that in a properly coordinated turn, the occupants of the aircraft will feel that they are being pushed "down" toward the floor of the aircraft. That's convenient and feels more comfortable than sliding out of your seat. However, it means that it's quite possible to enter an extremely steep turn that fools the body into thinking that everything is OK. Bad things can easily happen unless you learn to ignore what your body is telling you and instead rely on what your artificial horizon is telling you.

Re:How does that compare to desktops?

[AK Marc]

The problem with this is why the person doing the study is important. If, when you get 10 MPH over the limit, the windshield pops up a huge warning message, that's bad. But having the speed on the view 100% of the time, with the color of the display changing as the limit is reached, and passed, would give the same information and should make you more safe, not less. I could ask the same question and get opposite answers, depending on what I want to find.

The HUD that's augmented reality (overlaying IR on real view, so you see deer sooner and such), that should never be a distraction.

What is in the HUD that's distracting? Everything the ECU knows, displayed in Matrix style? Yes, distracting and not useful. But the tasteful HUDs? If they are distracting and intrusive, that's more a driver problem, not a HUD problem.

Re:Bullshit?

[Nethemas the Great]

The difference is that a fighter pilot has been selected for their skills, esp. with multi-tasking and processing a rapidly evolving environment. Few candidates actually make it past the starting gate. Drivers on the other hand are only weeded down to those that can stay in a lane, use a turn signal, and apply the brakes at an intersection. You can be an almost entirely incompetent driver and pass your exam. If you fail you can generally can continue to retake the test until you pass. Eventually the dice will land just right.