Audi Knows What Makes You Mad Thanks to Help From MIT

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wants to know what makes drivers mad, but instead of asking them, it is using science. Audi had partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to examine what makes drivers upset. It found that driving in urban traffic is the most stressful for drivers. Audi says it will use to the data to develop future technology. 

MIT's SENSEable City Laboratory created the Road Frustration Index to quantify the factors that frustrate drivers. It connected sensors to a driver's skin and used facial and body tracking while recording what was happening outside of the car. The data were compared against readings recorded while taking a test and skydiving.

"In addition to daily driving conditions, we are measuring stress levels under a variety of daily activities: at home, in the office, while having breakfast or attending a lecture at MIT. We found that certain driving situations can be one of the most stressful activities in our lives," said Kael Greco, project leader.

The test while driving created a route around Boston, Massachusetts, from 4:56am to 6:30am. The index creates scores from zero and up. The highest amount of stress in the data that MIT released was a 3.898 when a car honked at the driver. Highway driving was least stressful with scores between 1.1 and 1.8. 

Skydiving had a significantly hire amount of stress than driving. The jumper had sustained stress levels around 5.0 while in the plane. It hit 16.6 when the person jumped and 17.1 when the parachute opened. 

During the test, the driver was in a minor accident when the car he was driving was sideswiped by another car. It caused a sustained stress index between 3.0 and 2.5 after the accident and while the two driver exchanged insurance information. 

The SENSEable City Laboratory has been doing the tests on Boston roads for the lasts 12 months. The full results and conclusions will be published in a peer-reviewed journal later this year. 

You can view the data comparing driving and skydiving at the Road Frustration Index page.