Politecnico di Milano is now working with Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele on a study about “normal” drivers feeling and sickness during a simulation. 

The study aims to explore a new field in automotive simulation, looking forward to the tests that will have to be made in order to make an autonomous vehicle comfortable. 

45 “normal” people (I.e., not professional drivers) have been selected as sample for this study.  

In this study, every driver had to perform 3 different rides in 3 different scenarios: a highway and two towns. During the driving, some events would happen, such as a pedestrian crossing the road or a vehicle braking abruptly in front of the driver vehicle. These events have been programmed in order to happen at a certain location of the driver vehicle, by means of triggers. 

We evaluated driver reactions by means of an eye-tracker camera, a sensored steering wheel and electrodes that collected information about heart rate and stress.