ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the characteristics of route guidance systems affect the attentional demand and efficiency of the driving task. Route guidance information may be presented using visual displays, audio messages, or both. Most of the information needed for the driving task is obtained visually, so it has been argued that audio route guidance systems will lead to less distraction from the driving task. The information provided in the messages should probably be limited to turn street name, distance/number of blocks to the turn, and the direction of turn. A common limitation of previous research was that they did not include head-up displays. Electronic maps are included as a common component in all electronic systems because of a desire to test the performance of displays in combination. Analysis of variance models were developed for mean speed over a decision segment. A decision segment was defined as the roadway segment between two consecutive turns.
