Abstract
Purpose :
In the majority of states, drivers with reduced visual acuity are permitted to drive with a bioptic telescope which magnifies distant objects. Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have become widely available in new cars and may be helpful for drivers with impaired vision, but little is known about whether bioptic drivers use these systems. We conducted a survey to quantify usage of ADAS by bioptic compared to normal vision (NV) drivers.
Methods :
The telephone survey included questions pertaining to subjects’ demographics, vision, vehicle, driving habits, experience, and use of 8 ADAS: forward collision warning, forward collision avoidance, blind spot warning, lane departure warning, rearview camera, adaptive cruise control, cruise control, and GPS navigation.
Results :
46 bioptic drivers (25 male; median age 53, range 24-84 years) and 47 NV drivers (25 male; median age 55, range 24-89) completed the survey. Weekly mileage (median 50 miles) and days per week driving (median 5) did not differ between the two groups. Yet, bioptic drivers had overall newer cars (medians 4 vs. 7 years, p =0.041) and used more ADAS (medians 3 vs. 2, p = 0.113) than NV drivers. For bioptic drivers, the most commonly used ADAS were GPS (89% bioptic, 91% NV), rearview camera (61% bioptic, 49% NV) and blind spot warning (50% bioptic, 23% NV). Forward collision warning (p=0.038), blindspot warning (p=0.009), and rearview camera (p = 0.026) were used more by bioptic than NV drivers. The ADAS most commonly believed to improve safety were blind spot warning (89% bioptic, 83% NV) and rearview camera (74% bioptic, 83% NV). The majority (83%) of bioptic drivers reported that GPS compensated for their reduced vision (compared to < 57% for other ADAS) and 50% commented that it replaced the need to read road signs. However, 37% of bioptic drivers reported difficulty using GPS because of their vision.
Conclusions :
Bioptic drivers have newer cars and use ADAS more than NV drivers, most notably forward collision warning, blind spot warning, and rearview camera. For bioptic drivers, blind spot warning was reported to be most likely to improve safety and GPS was most likely to compensate for vision impairment, even though they experienced visual difficulties when using GPS and believed other ADAS to have greater potential to improve driving safety.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.