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Where we look when we steer

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Abstract

STEERING a car requires visual information from the changing pattern of the road ahead. There are many theories about what features a driver might use1–3, and recent attempts to engineer self-steering vehicles have sharpened interest in the mechanisms involved4,5 However, there is little direct information linking steering performance to the driver's direction of gaze3. We have made simultaneous recordings of steering-wheel angle and drivers' gaze direction during a series of drives along a tortuous road. We found that drivers rely particularly on the 'tangent point' on the inside of each curve, seeking this point 1–2 s before each bend and returning to it throughout the bend. The direction of this point relative to the car's heading predicts the curvature of the road ahead, and we examine the way this information is used.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sussex Centre for Neuroscience, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK

    M. F. Land

  2. Perception in Action Laboratories, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK

    D. N. Lee

Authors
  1. M. F. Land
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  2. D. N. Lee
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Land, M., Lee, D. Where we look when we steer. Nature 369, 742–744 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/369742a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/369742a0

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