Preferred Driving Posture and Driver's Physical Dimension

Abstract

This study collected the data concerning preferred driving postures and adopted seat adjustment levels. Then, the relationships among drivers' body sizes, postural angles, positions and angles of the seat, and body pressure distribution were investigated. An experiment was conducted to find observed optimum driving posture, seat adjustment level, and body pressure. Thirty-six subjects (20 males, 16 females) were selected to be representative of the automotive driving population of Korea. The preferred ranges for optimum postural comfort of Korean were presented. Considering the relationships among body sizes, driving postures, and seat adjustment levels, there was trade-off on the comfortable driving posture between steering wheel handling and pedal operation. Estimation models on observed optimum driving posture and seat adjustment level were constructed. The developed models enable us to estimate the quantitative optimum driving posture and seat adjustment level with a certain driver's physical dimensions.

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