LAUSR

Abstract Objective Excessive cold or overheating can cause a decline in driver performance and even serious traffic accidents, but the influence mechanism of ambient temperature and vehicle speeds on drivers’ cognitive performance is still unclear. This research developed an easy driving simulator experiment to study driver performance under different ambient temperatures and vehicle speeds. Method Simulated driving tasks were performed by 30 male participants at different speeds in low, medium, and high-temperature environments. A behavioral experiment was adopted, and the average reaction time of emergency braking was used as the evaluation index of driver performance. Results Both ambient temperature and vehicle speed had a statistically significant relationship with driver’s braking reaction time, and the interaction effect was significant. Conclusion Drivers’ cognitive efforts in medium-temperature environments were significantly lower than that at high and low temperatures. Compared with previous studies, this study also monitored differences in the activity of drivers’ brain regions in three ambient temperatures, providing a physiological basis for measuring drivers’ cognitive efforts.