Fragrance Impact on Driving Performance

Previous studies have indicated that certain types of fragrance in the vehicle are useful in keeping the driver alert. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of lavender or vanilla flavor fragrances toward driving performance. Ten human subjects were tested using the driving simulator in three different conditions; driving with vanilla, lavender flavor fragrance and driving without fragrance. A questionnaire was distributed to examine the emotion states of the driver after driving the simulator. Our results indicate that fragrance did not affect the speed reduction. The emotions of the drivers were calm due to the presence of the fragrance.2398-4279 © 2017 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, UniversitiTeknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: driving performance, vehicle fragrance, speed reduction