The background of the project is an initial study carried out by Safer – Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre at Chalmers University and its French counterpart, Mov’eo, in view of the fact that the West has a larger ageing population that is both healthy and active.
Being able to drive to activities outside the home is an important factor in the quality of life for many. With age, however, cognitive abilities decrease, which means that both vehicle systems and infrastructure will need to be developed in order to adapt them to the needs of older drivers.
"The challenge for society will be to help older drivers drive safely for as long as they can, and in addition help them to understand on their own when their cognitive abilities have deteriorated so much that they need to adjust their driving behaviour," says Tania Dukic, VTI researcher and project leader for Safe Move.
Help for older drivers
The target group in the project is active, healthy drivers over the age of 75. It has been shown that older drivers often either overestimate or underestimate their ability to drive a car. The first part of the project is therefore to investigate which factors explain this, what older drivers need help with, and what determines when older people themselves start to adjust their driving behaviour – for example giving up driving in the dark, or avoiding left turns or larger roads.
Simulator training and safety systems
The second part of the project deals with developing simulator-based training programmes for older drivers that can help them drive more safely and understand what capacity they have regarding driving, regardless of whether they previously overestimated or underestimated their abilities. In addition, vehicle support and safety systems will be further developed, adapted to the specific needs of older drivers. These could be navigational systems, for example, or collision or fatigue warning systems.
Improved mobility and increased quality of life
Studies will be carried out in Sweden and France, which have similar socio-economic conditions, but interesting cultural differences in driving behaviour, as well as rules and regulations. Apart from increasing knowledge of how to ensure improved mobility and increased quality of life for an ageing population, those in the project anticipate increasing knowledge of future marketing and development opportunities for technical support systems.
The project will last for three and a half years.