An investigation on the man machine interfaces to existing route guidance systems

An experiment is conducted with 24 members of the general public in a real road environment using a fully instrumented car. Each subject drives two different routes, one using an electronic map-based route guidance system and the other using a baseline method. Half of the subjects use instructions given by a passenger as the baseline measure; the other half use a set of maps (from which subjects could make notes if preferred). Subject response to the system is positive. The subjects perceive their task workload to be lower than with Maps/Notes, and generally find the system to be easy to use, both when stationary and when moving. However, use off the system is associated with large amounts of time with eyes off the road.