Impact of haptic warning signal reliability in a time-and-safety-critical task

The bulk of current haptics human-factors research focuses on mapping basic human perceptual limits. However, many realistic applications demand a better understanding of how to construct more life-like but often less controllable experiment scenarios. In this paper, we study this problem in the context of advanced automobile interfaces. We employ a throttle pedal. with programmable force feedback to indicate potentially undesirable situations in. the external environment and to gently-but steadily guide the driver away from them. We have found evidence that within this scenario, errors in such a warning signal can have a negative effect on the behavior of the driver within the, conditions studied These experiments, required a complex protocol and necessarily permitted a variety of participant tactics. Post-experiment analysis revealed that very subtle variations in participant instruction produced large differences in tactics and consequent experiment outcome.