An Investigation into the Relationship between the Driver's Steering Characteristics and the Visual and Body Sensory Information in Critical Cornering

Various studies have been done into the steering models that describe how the driver steers the vehicle. However, no steering models for critical cornering have been developed. In this paper, the steering characteristic was investigated by monitoring the gaze of the driver during critical cornering. The direction of the steering model during critical cornering was considered. Since the driver can readily perceive the vehicle body slip angle if body sensory information is combined with visual information, it is important for the driver to be able to look at the target course easily and to control the drift well. Drivers exhibit the tendency to position their gaze point on a difficult corner exit to drive when body sensory information is combined with visual information. Thus, it was found that the driver can perceive the roll motion and visual feedback the body slip angle, and drive while stabilizing the vehicle from the corner exit to back straight. During grip cornering, the driver looks at the inside forward of the vehicle which is the target course, but when commencing drift cornering the driver shifts his/her gaze to the outside forward of the vehicle. Therefore, it was concluded that the driver steers via a visual feedback process of the body slip angle.