Prolonged exposure to glare and driving time: effects on performance in a driving simulator

Twelve experienced truck drivers drove a fixed-base driving simulator for t wo 8 h sessions, including: (1) no glare and (2) intermittent glare present ed in the exterior rear-view mirrors to simulate headlights from following vehicles. The driving task combined vehicle control on straight and curved road segments with detection of pedestrians appearing alongside the road an d targets appearing in the rear-view mirrors. The results provided no evide nce to support the hypothesis that prolonged exposure to glare impairs driv ing performance. However, we found time-related changes in target-detection and critical tracking performance, some of which were consistent with esta blished patterns of diurnal variation. Subjective sleepiness ratings also i ncreased over time. The results were interpreted within a model according t o which drivers are able to maintain effective performance at early levels of impairment, thus compensating for increasing feelings of subjective tire dness. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.