The question of whether men or women make better drivers has long been the subject of heated discussion.
Female drivers are statistically much less likely to commit driving offenses than male drivers, even though men have historically been subjected to more slurs regarding their driving abilities.
However, as driverless cars move closer to reality, engineers are scrutinizing all safety-related concerns.
Women are more adept at operating driverless vehicles than men, according to a new study conducted by Newcastle University.
Females were found to be more adept at regaining control of a vehicle when forced to respond to a hazard.
This is because they had quicker reaction times, were less impulsive, and had superior steering wheel control.
The findings, published last month in Scientific Reports, show that autonomous vehicles may require gender- and age-specific settings.
So that populations with slower reaction times can be notified of potential dangers sooner.
Professor Roberto Palacin, acting head of the School of Engineering at Newcastle University, told The Telegraph, “Our research can inform software engineers so that the automated vehicle can be adapted to the user, just as people have different ringtones on their mobile phones or may prefer to have it in dark mode.”
This may include your safety requirements about reaction times. In the same way that you can adjust the font size on your phone if you have poor eyesight, if I were buying a car for my mother, who was 70 years old, there could be a mode for that.
Dr. Shuo Li, stated, “Automated car manufacturers and software developers should adopt inclusive design approaches that take into account the needs, requirements, performance, and preferences of end-users from different demographic groups.”
Multiple studies have revealed that women are more skeptical about autonomous vehicles than men, yet Dr. Li’s research team discovered that women are more adept at utilizing them.
33 female and 43 male drivers were asked to operate the DriveLAB simulator, which replicates the controls of a Level 3 autonomous car.
This type of vehicle allows the driver to safely engage in other activities while remaining safe.
Even if the driver is not piloting the vehicle, the majority of self-driving vehicles now on the road require the driver to monitor their surroundings.
Since December 2021, Mercedes’ Drive Pilot technology, which is capable of Level 3 automation, has been permitted to operate in Germany.
The participants were instructed to read aloud from an iPad while seated in the simulator’s driver’s seat.
After one minute, the simulator alerted the user of an impending parked vehicle and requested they assume control of the vehicle while it proceeded at its present speed.
The participants then had 20 seconds to identify the obstacle, change lanes, and avoid a collision.
Clear, rainy, snowy, and foggy circumstances were reproduced for the experiment.
The results revealed “significant gender differences,” with women reacting to the hazard on average faster than males.
The average reaction time to regain control of the vehicle was 2.45 seconds for women and 2.63 seconds for males.
It was also shown that female participants steered the steering wheel less sharply after assuming control, retaining more steadiness.
They turned it away from the center by an average of 8.13 degrees, compared to 8.8 degrees for men.
Women also demonstrated a lower rate of hasty takeovers, which occur when the driver physically assumes control of the car before their hands are on the steering wheel, their feet are on the pedals, and their eyes are on the road.
It was determined that the difference between the number of hurried takeovers committed by female and male drivers, 17 and 23, was not statistically significant.
To account for gender-based disparities, the researchers argue that self-driving cars should have programmable settings for each driver.
For instance, software programmers may modify the number of safety warnings provided by a vehicle based on the user’s age and gender.
The team of Dr. Li also suggests that potential drivers be supplied with additional hands-on experience and educational sessions to enhance their understanding of autonomous vehicles.
In future trials, they hope to determine how common distractions affect women’s and men’s reaction times when assuming control of a car.
They believe that putting on makeup is a typical traffic offense for female drivers, whereas using a mobile phone is the norm for men.
The scientists also wish to investigate how motion sickness, stress, workload, and exposure to racing or driving video games affect the performance of autonomous vehicles.
Apple has filed a patent for a weird ‘coffin-like’ autonomous vehicle with no windows.
A new patent suggests that Apple’s long-awaited Apple Car could use virtual screens instead of glass windows.
The tech giant has submitted a patent application for a virtual reality (VR) vehicle system that synchronizes “virtual views” with the physical motion of a moving car.
For instance, if the vehicle was speeding down a slope, the system could display a virtual image of a roller coaster ride.
Similar to a ‘4DX’ cinematic experience, the car’s seats would move by the graphics, according to the patent.
Passing vistas of the actual world, such as a majestic medieval church or breathtaking coastal hills, would be fully replaced with computer-generated imagery.
