The bigger the better? Investigating the effects of driving simulator fidelity on driving behavior and perception

There is a wide range of different driving simulator systems, which vary greatly in terms of cost as well as system characteristics. Higher fidelity simulators are often assumed to produce more valid results. While there are many studies that have compared simulator driving to real-world driving, to date there has been no large study comparing different simulator systems to each other and to real-world driving. Aiming at closing this gap, the present research offers an extensive comparison of six different driving simulators with the results of a previous real-world study. In terms of absolute validity, most of the simulators provided good results for distance to a vehicle in front and standard deviation of the lateral position, whereas the results for driving speed were inconsistent. Simulator fidelity appears to positively affect distance perception, although differences between higher fidelity simulators were generally small, and no real-world comparison data were available here. With respect to simulator sickness, a clear advantage of using a high fidelity simulator was found, while the effect size depended on the use case. In summary, the results suggest that different simulators are suitable for different use cases to different degrees, and the differences between simulators are not always related to higher simulator fidelity. The presented study can serve as a basis for understanding simulator requirements associated with different use cases.