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Abstract:

To be successful in the confusion of daily traffic, executing appropriate brake manoeuvres is an important skill. When following a car, a driver needs to be alert in order to quickly register and act upon decelerations of a leading vehicle. From the literature, it can be concluded that monocular information sources like the optical variable tau play an important role in the visual control of braking, but that several other visual cues, such as depth information from stereo vision, might have a supplementary impact on brake behaviour. In the present experiment, the contribution of stereo vision was investigated when performing a braking task. From this experiment, it can be concluded that stereo vision contributes to the initiation as well as to the control of a braking manoeuvre. However, this does not mean that people with a lack of stereo vision may cause greater risks in traffic negotiation, in particular situations in which rear-end collisions may occur. The lack of good stereo vision is even associated with more prudent brake behaviour, i.e., an earlier brake initiation and an earlier maximal deceleration.