Longer-term exposure to an intersection assistant: Effects of ADAS use on performance of healthy older drivers and drivers diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease

An advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) supported drivers at
intersections providing information about gap sizes to cross. Effects were
studied in a longer-term driving simulator study including 12 repeated
measures spread out over one month. Nine healthy older drivers (65 to 82
years) making up one group and nine older drivers diagnosed with Parkinson’s
disease (PD) (68 and 82 years) making up a second group participated in the
study. Groups completed ten sessions with ADAS and two sessions without pass the intersection and the number of stops before crossing an intersection, so
they became less hesitant and more confident over time. It was also observed
that healthy older drivers had a smaller minimum time-to-collision (TTC) value
to crossing traffic and crossed more often with a critical TTC to crossing traffic
than drivers diagnosed with PD, a reflection of smaller safety margins
accepted. At the same time, they caused fewer crashes than drivers diagnosed
with PD. Nevertheless, ADAS use might have prevented crashes from
occurring as was found in previous studies.