Take-over time in highly automated vehicles: noncritical transitions to and from manual control

Abstract

Objective: the aim of this study was to review existing research into driver control transitions and to determine the time it takes drivers to resume control from a highly automated vehicle in non-critical scenarios.

Background: contemporary research has moved from an inclusive design approach to only adhering to mean/median values when designing control transitions in automated driving. Research into control transitions in highly automated driving has focused on urgent scenarios where drivers are given a relatively short time span to respond to a request to resume manual control. We found a paucity in research into more frequent scenarios for control transitions, such as planned exits from highway systems.

Method: twenty six drivers drove two scenarios with an automated driving feature activated. Drivers were asked to read a newspaper, or to monitor the system, and to relinquish, or resume, control from the automation when prompted by vehicle systems.

Results: significantly longer control transition times were found between driving with and without secondary tasks. Control transition times were substantially longer than those reported in the peer-reviewed literature.

Conclusion: we found that drivers take longer to resume control when under no time-pressure compared to that reported in the literature. Moreover, we found that drivers occupied by a secondary task exhibit larger variance, and slower responses to requests to resume control. Workload scores implied optimal workload.

Application: intra- and inter-individual differences need to be accommodated by vehicle manufacturers and policy makes alike to ensure inclusive design of contemporary systems and safety during control transitions.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Alexander Eriksson: orcid.org/0000-0003-1549-1327

ORCID for Neville Stanton: orcid.org/0000-0002-8562-3279

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