Welcome to the Würzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences (WIVW GmbH)!
Your partner for innovative human factors research in the field of traffic science
Our interdisciplinary team of experts in the fields of psychology, engineering and computer science provides you with competent support as a research partner in the field of human factors. We address complex research and development issues of market leaders in the mobility industry and are partners in numerous publicly funded national and international large-scale projects.
Individual driving simulation solutions for science and training
Based on our proprietary SILAB® software, we design, implement and offer customized simulator- and simulation solutions. SILAB was specifically designed for scientific purposes and is continuously developed further in close cooperation with our users. In addition to research and development, this also enables the targeted use of driving simulators for training and driver education.
News
- February
2025 ATLAS-L4 project meeting at WIVWOn February 28th, the Würzburger Institut für Verkehrswissenschaften GmbH (WIVW) welcomed representatives from all project partners of the ATLAS-L4 project (funded by the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz) for a project management team meeting.
Besides the presentation of the current project status and the progress of the activities in the nine work packages, the focus of the meeting was the preparation of the ATLAS-L4 final event that will take place on May 7th and 8th at the ADAC Mobility Test Center in Penzing, Germany. The event will provide exciting insights into the project results. Over the past three years, the project consortium worked on various aspects of bringing fully autonomous trucks on motorways. The project topics cover Safety and approval, Security, Functional requirements, Perception, Hardware architecture, Functional development, Software platform, Test and validation methods and Control center and teleoperation.
Beyond the project related topics, the project partners had the opportunity to join a tour through the WIVW premises and visit various simulators.
Thanks to our project partners MAN Truck & Bus SE, Knorr-Bremse, LEONI, Bosch, FERNRIDE, BTC Embedded Systems, Fraunhofer AISEC, Technische Universität München, Technische Universität Braunschweig, TÜV SÜD, Die Autobahn GmbH des Bundes for visiting us in Veitshöchheim!
- February
2025 WIVW presented exciting first results at the SALSA project meetingAt the SALSA project meeting in Munich at MAN, the WIVW presented a study on the potential for napping in highly automated driving. Together with AUDI AG, we examined whether drivers can imagine sleeping in an automated vehicle and how they prefer to be awakened. With 42.5%, a large part of car drivers intends to use a future in-car sleeping function.
In addition, the WIVW conducted a workshop on how to communicate knowledge about the functions of driving automation systems to drivers. The transfer of knowledge is particularly important for new and complex systems, e.g., in car sharing, where users have to deal with the systems at short notice. The insights gained will be incorporated into the development of suitable systems to enable quick and easy communication of complex functions.
The project is funded by the German Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action) and the team consists of AUDI AG, Bundesanstalt für Straßen- und Verkehrswesen BASt, CanControls, Elektrobit, FKFS, Fraunhofer IOSB, Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart, INVENSITY, MAN Truck & Bus SE, Spiegel Institut, studiokurbos®, Universität Stuttgart, BASF, Porsche AG, TÜV Rheinland Consulting, and Valeo Deutschland.
- January
2025 AHFE contributions available as open accessThe WIVW was represented at the Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics Conference (AHFE 2024) in Nice with two presentations. Both contributions are now available as open access publications.
As part of the Hi-Drive project, a questionnaire was developed and tested to record drivers' understanding of the system and their expectations of automated driving functions. The publication is available here.
In addition, a simulator study investigated the number and types of driving-relevant animations that can be presented in central vehicle displays without resulting in significant driver distraction. The publication is available here.
- January
2025 WIVW publishes study on car sickness in Transportation Research Part FToo sick to take over? Does car sickness affect cognitive performance relevant to driving?
With the introduction of higher levels of automation, the risk of experiencing car sickness increases. Not only can car sickness affect comfort, but it might also have a negative impact on performance, which could be safety-critical when taking over in a demanding situation. Therefore, the WIVW conducted a study as part of the European Hi-Drive project to investigate the impact of car sickness on cognitive performance relevant to driving. The main findings were prolonged reaction times to sudden events, impaired hand-eye coordination, and reduced visuospatial abilities, while visual search was not negatively affected.
The study has now been published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour and is freely available until mid-February 2025 here.
- December
2024 WIVW publishes study on pedestrian-driver interaction in Applied ErgonomicsHow do pedestrians communicate with car drivers in urban traffic?
The WIVW has published a study on the interaction between pedestrians and car drivers. In terms of content, 18 pedestrian gestures were identified. Methodologically, it was also investigated whether a virtual environment is comparably well suited to researching these interaction patterns compared to a real environment.
The results were published in the journal Applied Ergonomics and are available here. Until end of February 2025, the article can also be accessed free of charge here.
The study was conducted as part of the INITIATIVE project, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
- December
2024 WIVW at the 15th International Motorcycle ConferenceWhat defines a „normal“ motorcycle riding behaviour? What is an appropriate warning timing and which rider reactions should be expected?
WIVW addressed these topics in two presentations at the 15th International Motorcycle Conference hosted by the Institut für Zweiradsicherheit (ifz) in Cologne on December 5th and 6th:- A Matter of Time: Investigation of Warning Timing for Motorcycle Rider Assistance Systems (study on WIVW’s dynamic motorcycle riding simulator on behalf of the Connected Motorcycle Consortium, CMC)
- An Approach to Rider Behavior Profiling based on Naturalistic Riding Data (results from the project KIMoVe that is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, BMWK, and conducted together with x-log GmbH and Hochschule Landshut)
Furthermore, WIVW was involved in three other presentations dealing with head-up displays (HUD) for motorcyclists, rider training and full-body motion capture of motorcyclists.
More information about the conference and presentations can be found here.
Fotos: ifz e.V.