Glare significantly diminishes visual perception, and is a significant
cause of traffic accidents. Existing haptic automotive
interfaces typically indicate when and in which direction to
steer, but they don’t convey how much to steer, as a driver
typically determines this using visual feedback. We present a
novel haptic interface that relies on an intelligent vehicle position
system to indicate when, in which direction and how far
to steer, as to facilitate steering without any visual feedback.
Our interface may improve driving safety when a driver is
temporarily blinded, for example, due to glare or fog. Three
user studies were performed, the first study tries to understand
driving using visual feedback, the second study evaluates two
different haptic encoding mechanisms with no visual feedback
present, and a third study evaluates the supplemental effect
of haptic feedback when used in conjunction with visual
feedback. Studies show this interface to allow for blind steering
through small curves and that it can improve a driver’s
lane keeping ability when combined with visual feedback