Research of Steering Grasping to Take over Driver from System

Lane departure prevention systems are able to detect imminent departure from the road, allowing the driver to apply control to prevent lane departure. These systems possess enormous potential to reduce the number of accidents resulting from road departure, but their effectiveness is highly reliant on their level of acceptance by drivers. The effectiveness of the systems will depend on when they are providing driving assistance, what level of laxness in terms of maintaining contact with the steering wheel is allowed on the part of the driver, and what level of assistance the system provides. This paper will discuss research on the minimum necessary contact and contact strength with the steering wheel on the part of the driver when a lane departure prevention system is in operation. Using a six-axis driving simulator employing an actual vehicle, the research conducted tests involving 22 test subjects, and studied the relationship between the status of the driver’s contact with the steering wheel and vehicle behavior when the system failed. As a result of simulation, when the driver had relinquished steering control and the vehicle was self-steering on the curve, contact of even one finger with the steering wheel made the reaction time faster.