The effects of warning characteristics on driver behavior in connected vehicles systems with missed warnings

With emerging new technologies, the vehicles in the future with connected vehicle systems (CVS) will be equipped with the ability to communicate with each other and aim to provide drivers with information in a timely and reliable way to improve driver safety. This study was designed to investigate the interaction effects of warning lead time (2.5 s vs. 4.5 s), warning reliability (73% vs. 89%), and speech warning style (command vs. notification) on driver performance and subjective evaluation of warnings in CVS. A driving simulator study with thirty-two participants was designed to simulate a connected vehicle environment with missed warnings due to failures in the communication network of the CVS. With regard to the response types, the results showed that notification warnings led to a lower probability of braking response and a higher probability of braking and steering response compared with command warnings. The results showed command warnings led to a smaller collision rate compared to notification warnings with the warning lead time of 2.5 s, whereas no significant difference of collision rates was found between two warning styles when the warning lead time is 4.5 s. These results suggest notification warnings should be selected when the warning lead time is longer and the warning systems are highly reliable, which resulted in higher safety benefits and higher subjective rating. Command warnings could be selected when the warning lead time is shorter since they led to more safety benefits, but such selection has to be made with caution since command warnings may limit drivers’ response type and were perceived as less helpful than notification warnings.