To study the differences between the psychological characteristics of elderly drivers in risk situations and those of young and middle-aged drivers, and to determine the decline of psychological characteristics of elderly drivers, five experiments scenarios with different risk levels were designed. Drivers’ heart rate variability frequency domain data and time domain data were extracted by physiological instruments. Compared and analyzed the two groups of drivers’ HRV indicators. The results show that the frequency domain index LF and LF/HF of the two groups both increase with the rise of risk grade, while the time domain index SDNN of HRV decreases with the rise of risk grade. In addition, the SDNN index of elderly drivers declined by 29.14%, which indicated that the operating load of elderly drivers is relatively higher in risk scenarios. Compared with young and middle-aged drivers, elderly drivers need more mental and effort investment to deal with risks, which increases the probability of accidents among elderly drivers.

CICTP