I would first like to say I have thoroughly enjoyed my 3 weeks interning at Project54. During my time here, I have created four “hazardous” traffic incidents. Hazardous in the sense that there is perceived danger, which requires the driver to take preventative actions to avoid collisions or accidents. While none of these are commonplace events, they are quite possible and have probably happened to all of us at one point or another.

The first is a driver pulling out from the shoulder, cutting you off. The second is a pedestrian who is unaware of your approach and walks out into the road in front of you. Due to the possibility of emotional impact on participants in a study from harming a simulated pedestrian, there is no way for the driver to actually hit the pedestrian accidentally. Either the person turns around upon “seeing” you, or they start to run if you do not slow down. The third event is a “trick” light, which turns yellow a little too late, forcing you to stop or run a red light. The final event I created causes the surrounding traffic to pass a very slow bicyclist heading towards you. When the vehicles pass the bicyclist, they swerve into your lane, forcing you to stop and swerve into the shoulder. Here is a video that demostrates these four incidents as they occur in the Project54 driving simulator:

I wrote these scripts in such a fashion that they can be used in any driving simulation scenario. This was a critical aspect since the final goal of all these events is implementation in a sort of distraction test course, which can be used as a gauge of how safe a piece of equipment is, based on how well the driver is able to navigate the course while using the equipment.

Owen Derby

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