Erik C. B. Olsen

EVALUATING DRIVER PERFORMANCE
ON THE ROAD AND IN A SIMULATOR

The purpose of this study was to determine if a driving simulator can replace an on-road evaluation in the context of an Occupational Therapist (OT) Driver Assessment and to identify the differences between road and simulator environments. The benefits of using a simulator to perform driver assessment are many-fold and include: 1) a more time- and cost-efficient method for evaluations (e.g., weather concerns would be eliminated), 2) the ability to evaluate drivers under complex conditions where failures are likely to occur, and 3) the safety of both the evaluator and driver would be improved.

With this in mind, the present study focused on differences between environments and compared driver evaluations conducted on-road to that conducted in a medium-fidelity driving simulator. Overall, the data does not show strong promise for replacing on-road OT assessments with this particular simulator. This is largely due to the differences in fidelity and feedback between actual and simulated driving, coupled with the discomfort (i.e., simulator sickness) experienced in the simulator by a significant proportion of the participants. However, some aspects of the data suggest that parts of the driver evaluation process may be better performed in a simulator. Continued research is proposed, addressing the differences between actual and simulated vehicle environments and the establishment of OT evaluation techniques in conjunction with simulation.