The process of adjusting the position of driver seat, its mental workload and its possible human errors

Abstract

Over the years, the driver car seat has evolved its shape, materials and even on its secondary functions. Nowadays, ergonomics has significantly influenced on the driver´s car seat design on taking care about driver´s health. The current investigation performs an analysis on how drivers adjust their seat through two different cognitive ergonomic perspectives. First, a mental workload profile was applied to the process to evaluate the cognitive resources needed during the process. Later, a human error process identified the tasks possibly were mistaken or poorly performed. Results show that adjusting the distance between steering wheel and driver seat is the cognitive resources most demanding on the process. Also, the SHERPA study proves that most people do not properly adjust the seat because lack of knowledge and awareness of how important these adjustments are.