In recent years, automated vehicles have gradually become more common on motorways in Japan. It is important that surrounding drivers accept the automated vehicles in order to promote such vehicles more in the future. This research investigated the effects of an external display and drivers' knowledge and acceptance of automated driving. A driving simulator experiment was conducted to investigate this aim. Drivers were asked to follow an automated vehicle equipped with the external display at low speeds in traffic congestion, and after completing the drive, they were asked to answer their concerns about the vehicle. The results showed that drivers with no knowledge of automated driving tended to feel anxious when the external display noted the state of automated driving, but on average, the degree of anxiety was acceptable. More investigation is necessary to determine the validity of the results obtained in this study.

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Japanese statistics show that one in twenty people over the age of 40 (estimated about 3.6 million) have glaucoma in Japan. Previous studies suggested that glaucoma patients compensate for visual field impairment by eye movements. However, there are only a few studies on such compensatory behavior. In this study, a driving simulator experiment was conducted to understand the compensatory behavior of glaucoma drivers, especially their eye-gaze behavior. Eight healthy elderly drivers and five glaucoma patients participated in the experiment. Gaze behavior while driving was measured under various traffic conditions. The results showed that glaucoma patients had a higher rate of gazing to the left side in addition to the front, in several driving situations compared to normal elderly drivers. Compensatory behaviors of glaucoma patients are discussed in terms of their eye-gaze behavior.

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