On 20 November Katja Kircher from the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute – VTI presented the organisation’s activities within the ecoDriver sub-project SP1 “Supporting Drivers in eco-driving” and SP3 “Real world trials” at a conference in Stockholm organised by the Swedish Energy Agency, which is co-financing the VTI part of ecoDriver.
VTI ran a simulator study which involved 25 professional truck drivers and was aimed at evaluating whether the suggested solutions had potential to distract the driver or not. The simulator study included 4 different route drives of 15 minutes each with different characteristics: 1) no eco-driving support system; 2) eco driving support system with continuous display; 3) eco-driving support system with intermittent display; and 4) self selected display.
The collected log data were analysed together with data from an extensive interview held after the drives. The eco-driving support system used in the simulator study included some features such as recommended speed zone, hill climb support, speed warning system and recommended pedal action, amongst others. According to the results, drivers were very positive about the system.
They saw the ability of the driver to be able to customise the system as being very important. The eye glance analysis showed that intermittent information presentation is preferable to continuous information presentation.
The final prototype of the ecoDriver system will be tested in the field where 12 drivers will perform 10 drives of about 1 and half hours each. So far the test vehicle was fitted with logging equipment, and the first baseline test was run with 12 participants.
