Validation of driving behavior in the Vehicle in the Loop: Steering responses in critical situations

Combining real driving experience with the safety and replicability of a simulation, the Vehicle in the Loop (VIL) setup potentially qualifies as an ideal tool for the development and evaluation of safety-related driver assistance systems. Previous studies have assessed this high-fidelity simulator's validity for longitudinal driving behavior. Aiming to validate the VIL setup with regard to lateral driving behavior, an experiment was conducted comparing steering behavior of 48 participants throughout the same critical traffic scenario experienced in a real driving environment and in the VIL simulation. Steering behavior was found to be less intense in the virtual driving environment. It was, however, affected equally in both driving environments by driver-independent steering wheel torque, demonstrating relative validity of the VIL setup with regard to steering responses in challenging situations.