ABSTRACT
Advanced driver information systems are becoming more common in road vehicles. Rockwell (1988) stated that: “Since, most electronic displays being introduced into vehicles today have little positive safety benefits, they could be construed as increasing the accident potential if drivers attend to them to the detriment of roadway visual sampling.”, page 317. The need for additional information regarding driver visual behaviour has been highlighted (Rockwell 1988; Wierwille, Hulse et al. 1988). Visual behaviour can be empirically investigated by examining the driver’s spare visual capacity, the distribution of their scanning and the impact of changes in the driving environment on his/her fixations. This paper is concerned with the environmental influences on driver visual demand.
