A Steering Wheel Reversal Rate Metric for Assessing Effects of Visual and Cognitive Secondary Task Load

This paper presents a steering wheel reversal rate metric intended for assessment of the effects of secondary tasks, such as interacting with in-vehicle information systems, on vehicle lateral control performance. The metric was compared to a number of other common steering wheel metrics with respect to the sensitivity to visual and cognitive secondary task load. It was shown that the proposed reversal rate metric, together with the existing steering entropy metric, was the most sensitive across experimental conditions. Different parameter settings for the metric were systematically investigated and suitable values for capturing the effects of visual and cognitive secondary task load recommended.