ABSTRACT
A driving simulator study was conducted by using the same setup in two driving simulators, one with a moving base and one with a fixed base. The aim of the study was to investigate a selection of commonly used performance indicators (PIs) for their sensitivity to secondary tasks loading on different modalities and levels of difficulty, and to evaluate their robustness across simulator platforms.
The results showed that, across platforms, the longitudinal PIs behaved similarly whereas the lateral control and eye movement based performance indicators differed. For modality, there were considerable effects on lateral, longitudinal as well as eye movement PIs. However, there were only limited differences between the baseline and the cognitive and haptic tasks. For difficulty, clear effects on PIs related to lateral control and eye movements were shown. Additionally, it should be noted that there were large individual differences for several of the PIs.
674In conclusion, many of the most commonly used PIs are susceptible to individual differences, and, especially the PIs for lateral control, to the platform and environment where they are acquired, which is why generalizations should be made with caution.
