Kinetosis in automated driving cars - influence of outward view and impairment of driving ability

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Steffen Müller; Dr. Uwe Schönfeld
• Subject Area: Traffic and Transport Systems, Intelligent and Automated Traffic
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 416914220

The occurrence of kinetosis (motion sickness) in cars is a problem that primarily affects the passengers. The transformation of the driver into a passenger associated with the introduction of automated driving vehicles and the option of new seating positions will increase the risk of developing a kinetosis. In the first part of the project, the influence of different vehicle movements and occupant positions on the development of kinetosis were examined with test subjects and in medical studies, properties of the vestibular organ in the inner ear were measured as possible causes of individual sensitivity to kinetosis. With reproducible driving maneuvers using a sedan car, the effect of the complex movement patterns on the human motion perception in the vestibular organ was examined by suppressing the view to the outside. Without a view to the outside, sinusoidal longitudinal acceleration led to a significantly higher risk of kinetosis than sinusoidal lateral acceleration. Comparisons of a forward or rear-facing sitting position and different angular amplitudes of the pitch, roll and yaw movements showed no differences in both movements without vision. The studies on kinetosis sensitivity confirmed that an asymmetry (right vs. left) in the function of the structures relevant to linear movements has an influence to motion sickness, but is only one of many causes. In addition to this, in the second part of the project the influences of vision will be examined in more detail for the movement patterns, which showed no differences without outside view, but differences with vision of the street are known. It has already been proven that a restricted view to the outside or a changed view due to a rear-facing sitting position increases the risk of motion sickness. However, it is largely unknown which components of vision (peripheral or frontal) particularly will influence kinetosis in cars. With the existing test vehicle, these different view conditions are to be investigated in test subject studies with a uniform setup for longitudinal and lateral dynamic driving maneuvers and compared with the results without view from part 1. As before, the individual sensitivity to kinetosis and now also the dynamic vision ability of the subjects are taken into account. It is also known that kinetosis has a negative effect on reaction times and the ability to concentrate. However, there are no findings to date on its effects on the driver's ability to take over and drive. This will be investigated in a driving simulator with test subjects under the influence of kinetosis. Furthermore, preliminary studies showed that neurophysiological measurements could be used to assess the strength of kinetosis. Based on EEG measurements during the kinetosis-provoking experiments, a method for objectively assessing the strength of kinetosis will be developed and tested for its applicability in real driving situations.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Norman Zacharias