Using virtual reality to assess age-related differences in driving behaviour

Artificial intelligence can be used in a variety of ways to mitigate the cognitive and psychophysical decline that accompanies ageing. However, it is not always easy to assess this decline. Several laboratory tests have been developed, but ecological assessment is still an open problem in many areas. Driving is one of these areas. Evaluating driving behaviour in a real-world environment raises ethical, practical, and economic issues. Virtual reality (VR), on the other hand, is already being used in several areas as a diagnostic and therapeutic aid. There are previous attempts to assess attention while driving using VR, but they are less than ecological. In this work, we propose a protocol to assess and quantify attention while driving and its effect on driving behavior. The protocol does not require expensive instruments and is easy to apply. Since its main goal is to assess age-related cognitive decline, it can be used to evaluate possible intervention areas for artificial intelligence and to quantify the effectiveness of these techniques.