The Effect of Transition Strategies on Take-Over Behavior in Automated Driving
Mon-B17-Talk II-04
Presented by: Luise Metzger
Technology advancements allow car manufacturers to introduce highly automated vehicles into the market in the foreseeable future. However, as long as vehicles are not fully autonomous, transitions between different levels of automation take place and imply shifts in the driver's role and responsibilities. In case of system limits, the driver may intervene in the driving task. As drivers will likely perform non-driving-related activities during automated driving, transitions to lower levels require the driver to re-establish situation awareness to intervene safely. Therefore, this work discusses two strategies how the driver’s situation awareness might be re-established before taking over the driving task. A 2 x 2 within-subjects design was employed with transition strategy (monitoring or initiating a maneuver) and type of transition (manual or automated maneuver) as independent variables. In a driving-simulator study, participants experienced a highly automated drive on a rural road. While participants engaged in a non-driving related task (NDRT), the vehicle approached a rear-end collision, due to which an intervention request was issued: participants were either asked to monitor the environment or to initiate an overtaking maneuver upon system availability. The subsequent maneuver had to be performed either manually (involving a take-over request) or was performed by the vehicle in automated mode. Effects on gaze behavior, manual driving performance, and subjective measurements were investigated. Both strategies decreased the odds of interleaving and positively affected driving safety. The strategies are discussed in light of their suitability for different transition contexts, and recommendations for the design of control transitions are derived.
Keywords: Highly Automated Driving, Transition Strategies, Monitoring, Maneuver-Initiation, Driving Safety