Be Yourself Driving: User Factors in a Real-Vehicle XR Simulator
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5753/jbcs.2026.8242Keywords:
Real-vehicle XR simulator, automotive extended reality, user factors, driving experience, cybersicknessAbstract
Real-vehicle Extended Reality (XR) simulators are attractive because they preserve the physical steering wheel, pedals, and cabin while enabling controlled virtual scenarios. However, automotive XR studies often emphasize condition-level comparisons, such as Mixed Reality (MR) versus Virtual Reality (VR), while giving less attention to participant factors that may shape objective performance. This paper investigates how gender, driver's license status, and practical driving experience relate to performance in a physically grounded XR driving task implemented inside a stationary BYD Dolphin Plus. Forty participants, balanced by gender and license status, completed the same collectible-based driving task in both VR and MR, yielding 80 logged runs. Objective measures included batteries collected, first-lap duration, and percentage of time spent inside the track. Linear mixed-effects models showed that driver's license status was a key predictor of performance: licensed participants collected more batteries and remained inside the track for longer. Gender-related effects also appeared for batteries collected and track adherence, but subgroup and licensed-only analyzes indicated that these effects should not be interpreted as intrinsic gender differences; instead, they were intertwined with license status, practical exposure, and the higher variability of the unlicensed subgroup. Visualization condition mainly affected first-lap duration, with shorter laps in VR, while batteries collected and track adherence remained comparatively stable across conditions. Exploratory analyses further suggested that, among licensed drivers, recent practical driving activity was more informative than gender for explaining performance differences. We discuss the implications of these findings for automotive XR evaluation, participant profiling, and the design of real-vehicle XR simulators.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Gustavo Camargo Domingues, David Ohara de Souza Cardoso, Carlos Gabriel Bezerra Pereira, Marina Holanda Kunst, Willams de Lima Costa, Veronica Teichrieb, Fátima de Lourdes dos Santos Nunes Marques, João Marcelo Teixeira
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
