Diss. Stockholm : Kungliga tekniska högskolan, KTH. Farkost och flyg, 2010

Since the dawn of the automobile, driver behaviour has been an issue. Driving can result in accidents that may harm not only the driver but also passengers and the surroundings. This calls for measures that restrict the usage of vehicles and to assist the individual driver to conduct the driving in a safe, yet practically efficient manner. The vehicles should therefore be both safe and intuitive, and preferably answer to thedifferent needs of all kinds of drivers. Driving skill can be defined in many ways, depending on the objective of the driving task, but answer in some way to the question of how well the driver can conduct the driving task. To assist low skill drivers without compromising the driving demand for high skill drivers, it is of highest importance that vehicles are tested and designed to meet those needs. This includes both the testing activities in the vehicle design phase in general but also the configuration for active systems and preventive safety, preferable with settings that adapts to the skill of the individual driver. The work here comprises the definition of skill and of driver recruitment procedures, scenario design, the development of an analysis method for objective measures, and the gathering of metrics to characterize the driver skill. Moreover, a driver model has been developed that makes use of driver skill characteristics. To gather the information needed, extensive multidisciplinary literature studies were conducted, as well as using field tests and test using an advanced moving base driving simulator. Here the focus is on path tracking skill, which is the main control aspect of driving, although the developed driving scenarios allow a varying degree of path planning, which is more related to regulation. The first simulator test was done with a very simple criterion fordriver selection, but the results gave a good insight into the variation between drivers ingeneral. For the following tests the recruitment procedure was refined to find drivers with high or low vehicle control and regulation skill, a recruitment that also was verified to really represent two different populations. Summarising chapter: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-13209