French ABS study shows training helps
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 1994-06-09
This article originally appeared in Volume 4, Number 2 of Driver/Education, in June 1994.
As the car approached a blind intersection at 100kph, a car moved into its path. There wasn't enough room to stop! But there was just enough room to swerve around.
Fortunately, the "intersection" was staged, on a closed-circuit track, as part of a French research study on Antilock Braking Systems (ABS). Almost all of the 100 drivers used in this study thought it was very realistic.
The intersection was made blind by the presence of a safe, artificial (polystyrene) wall which hid a parked car, with a driver at the wheel, stopped at a stop sign. The parked car couldn't be seen until the last minute.
Subject drivers got a few runs around the circuit, then, on the last run, the parked car was replaced by an inflated dummy car with the same features. Using electronic synchronization, this dummy car was pulled into the subject driver's lane. It crossed half the intersection and then stopped, leaving the left side of the intersection free for the subject's car.
Many of the subject drivers who didn't avoid the obstacle on their test run considered it too difficult, even impossible. Professional drivers who helped prepare the test described it as do-able but difficult.
The 100 drivers were divided into four groups:
Group 1 used a car without ABS
Group 2 didn't know they had ABS
Group 3 knew they had ABS
Group 4 used a car with ABS and had attended a half-day training program in its use.
During the training program, Group 4 were instructed in the theory of ABS and given demonstrations and avoidance exercises. This took place about two months before the experiment.
Results were divided into four categories: successfully avoided; tried to avoid; braking only; no attempt. "Tried to avoid" referred to subjects who tried to brake and steer to get around the obstacle. Overall, 40-50% of the subjects tried (successfully or not) to get around the obstacle using the appropriate method (braking and steering). But 80% of Group 4 tried.
- The "successfully avoided" score was 0% for Group 1, 21.8% for Group 2, 17.7% for Group 3 , and 29.2% for Group 4.
- The "tried to avoid" score was 39.1% for Group 1, 30.4% for Group 2, 23.5% for Group 3, and 50% for Group 4.
- "Braking only" was 56.9% for Group 1, 38.8% for Group 2, 46.8% for Group 3, and 20.8% for Group 4.
- No attempt to avoid the obstacle was made by 4% of Group 1, 9% of Group 2, 12% of Group 3, and 0% of Group 4.
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