Do Redundant Head-Up and Head-Down Display Configurations Cause Distractions?

This study was designed to investigate effects of different display configuration designs. Nineteen drivers completed a driving simulator study designed to resemble normal driving. Driving performance, glance behaviour, physiological measures, and task completion times was measured for two display configuration designs both during driving only and during driving with a simple secondary task, which consisted of detection, and off-setting of presented warnings. The display configuration design with more centrally placed information, e.g. the HUD and HDD, had less detrimental effects on driving performance and glance behaviour. The physiological measures showed, however, no significant differences between display configuration designs.