Motor Vehicle Operational Levels

Through personal experiences and observations, most people know that operating a motor vehicle requires the driver to pay close attention to the road, other vehicles, and the various road signs. However, many people get into the habit of getting distracted while driving, which can result in detrimental motor vehicles accidents. In fact, the relative risk of being in a motor vehicle accident quadruples when a driver is conversing on their cell-phone. A study was conducted by Frank Drews, Monisha Pasupathi, and David Stayer that looked at two of the many distractions that drivers are faced with every day; cell-phone conversations and passenger conversations. This study’s purpose was to bring about what happens to the driver when they become

The operational level focuses on driving on “a predetermined course,” which means driving center in the lane, without drifting or swerving from side to side. The next level of performance is the tactical level; this level has to deal with maneuvering the vehicle in traffic. Two examples of the tactical performance level includes a driver’s average speed and a driver’s following distance (how closely on average a driver is behind the car in front of them while driving). Lastly, the third level of performance is the strategic level. This level focuses on the goals that a driver may be attempting to achieve, for example, following navigational directions and taking the correct turns, or taking the correct exit off of an interstate. These three levels (operational, tactical, and strategic) give the authors a way to grade and measure how well the drivers performed when faced with different scenarios, most specifically with a passenger. Their hypothesis stated that a passenger plays an active part when driving because he or she monitors “the driving environment” (as long as the driver has ample driving experience/expertise) and expected to see a decrease in performance when the drivers were talking on the phone. In conclusion, the authors’ goal was to find how conversing with a passenger while driving compared with conversing on the cell-phone while

In this experiment, the independent variable was results of the driver without any conserving on a phone or to a passenger while driving. On the other hand, there was two dependent variables. The first dependent variable was the results from adding a passenger to be with the driver while he was driving, whereas the second dependent variable was the results when the driver was talking on a cell-phone while driving. In the experiment, 96 people were chosen to take part, with each of the 96 participants in groups of 2, resulting in 48 pairs. To do this, the authors used a PatrolSim™ high-fidelity driving simulator, where the participant were able to get familiar with the simulator for 15 minutes, in this time, they drove in three scenarios, in a rural area at night, downtown with minimal traffic navigation, and on a highway during the day. Then, out of the pair, one participant was randomly selected to be the driver, while the another participant in the pair was picked to either be a passenger or be on the phone, depending on which part of the experiment they were involved in. The person that was not driving was instructed to tell a story to the driver that they haven’t told them before about close call they’ve had while driving. From this, the researchers watched how carefully the drivers were paying attention to the road and