Verification of the Effect of Presenting a Virtual Front Vehicle on Controlling Speed

Abstract

Whenever there are no vehicles ahead and there is good road visibility, drivers tend to exceed speed limits even when they normally take care to drive safely. However, in some of these cases, overspeeding may cause serious accidents. In this research, to encourage driving at safe speeds, we propose a system that uses a mobile device installed in a car to visualize a virtual front vehicle. Specifically, when the speed of the real car is faster, the size of the visualized vehicle becomes bigger, as though the driver were approaching the virtual front vehicle. That is, the size simulates approaching the front vehicle. On the other hand, when the speed is slower, the size becomes smaller, as though the front vehicle were moving further away from the driver. We expect that a driver will feel a sense of approaching the front vehicle, notice their fast driving speed from the size of the virtual front vehicle, and slow down. To verify this effect, we conducted a driving simulation experiment.