This book is a collation of the papers given at the Fifth International Conference on Vision in Vehicles at the University of Glasgow, 1993. The sponsors of the conference are jointly the Applied Vision Society, the Ergonomics Society, and the Association of Optical Practitioners. The authors come therefore from a wide spectrum of disciplines interested in the control and driving of all kinds of vehicles, not only road going vehicles. Their interests include vehicle design, vehicle environment and highway design, and signalling, as well as optical, ophthalmic, and psychophysical aspects of vehicle control.

Papers are presented from optometrists, ophthalmologists, pure vision scientists, psychologists, ergonomists, and vehicle and highway designers. There is considerable input from the road and traffic research institutes—that is, Road Research Laboratory (UK), INRETS (France), as well as university and industrial research departments from the USA, UK, and the Netherlands.

Chapter 1 is broadly confined to driving simulator studies, chapter 2 relates to driver perception, and chapter 3 to cognitive aspects of driving with several psychophysical papers. There is here an important paper from Land and Horwood, on head and eye movements during driving, and at intersections. Papers on topics such as interpretation of road curves, and time to coincidence judgments are of most relevance to applied vision psychologists.

Chapters 4–8 relate to vehicle guidance systems and to vision in restricted visibility. These papers on vehicle visual ergonomics are mainly of interest to vehicle designers.

Ophthalmologists will be most interested in chapter 3 (Land and Horwood as above) and chapters 7 and 9, with papers on visual impairment, an excellent optometric overview by Wood and Troutbeck, older drivers needs, visual fields in diabetics, contrast sensitivity through tinted windscreens, and antireflection coated spectacle lenses. In chapter 9 there are papers on saccades and the effect of alcohol on driving.

This book is required reading for those interested in the whole spectrum of highway and vehicle design and ergonomics, as well as driver visual performance.