Older Adult Drivers

1390 Words3 Pages

1. Introduction In developed countries, the population of older adult drivers is predicted to be the fastest growing driver segment in the next ten years (Casutt et al. 2014). As quality of life in these countries increases, older adult drivers are more likely to continue driving regardless of their age (Bélanger, Gagnon, and Yamin 2010). Their tendency to continue driving is increasing while complicating factors such as age-related sensory, physical, and cognitive changes, as well as complex modern traffic environments, pose increasing risks to the older adult populations. In addition to these risks, if older adult drivers involved in crashes, they are more fragile and more likely to incur fatal injury while today’s healthcare costs are unendurable …show more content…

• What kind of assistance do they need in those situations? • Which in-vehicle technologies can provide the needed assistance? • What are the highlighting dimensions of older adult drivers’ in-vehicle technology acceptance? To answer these questions, a survey was conducted to identify those challenging driving situations that older adult drivers tend to avoid or feel reluctant to engage. Older adult drivers were also surveyed on their demographic, driving experiences, health concerns, crash experiences. After identifying the driving challenges and type of required assistance, this study explored feasible in-vehicle technologies that could provide assistance to older adult drivers. The study focuses on currently available, lower-level in-vehicle technology that could enhance older adult drivers' driving and their driving safety. Through the questionnaires, we explored older adult drivers’ acceptance of identified in-vehicle technologies such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Side View Assist (SVA) system, Lane Departure Warning (LDW) system, Night Vision Camera (NVC), Automated Pedestrian Detecting system (APD), and Automatic Windshield Wipers (AWW) …show more content…

However, these new technologies could not benefit the users, especially the older adult users unless they are accepted. One of the early frameworks which explained technologies acceptance is the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis 1989). This model found perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use as main effective factors on users’ decision. This model was extended to TAM2 ( and F. D. D. Venkatesh, Viswanath 2000), TAM3 ( and H. B. Venkatesh, Viswanath 2008) and the Unified Theories of Technology Acceptance Model (UTAUT) (Venkatesh, Viswanath, Michael G. Morris, Gordon B. Davis 2003) which integrated different models on the base of

More about Older Adult Drivers

Open Document