MAintaing Drivig Skills in Semi-Autonomous Vehicles

Semi-Autonomous Vehicles present a major challenge for drivers, namely the risk that their driving skills will decline. This problem is further compounded by the fact that while the number of semi- autonomous vehicles will increase there will for the foreseeable future still remain a large number of vehicles with no or little autonomous control. This combination of the decline in driving skills plus the complicated mix of vehicles on the road will raise a number of safety challenges. For example, drivers of semi-autonomous vehicles may be forced to take control under certain circumstances but may not possess the skills, which would enable them to react quickly enough or to take the right decision. Also they will not be able to rely on other vehicles taking the right course of action. As a result there needs to be methods employed which can encourage people to maintain their driving skills which are turned to the needs of particular drivers. This project will specifically explore how to profile driver performance and the development of persuasive tools, which will focus on safe driving within semi- autonomous vehicles.

Semi-autonomous vehicles present a major challenge for drivers, namely the risk that their driving skills will decline. This problem is further compounded by the fact that, while the number of semi-autonomous vehicles will increase, there will, for the foreseeable future, still remain a large number of vehicles with no or little autonomous control. This combination of the decline in driving skills, plus the complicated mix of vehicles on the road, will raise a number of safety challenges. For example, drivers of semi-autonomous vehicles may be forced to take control under certain circumstances, but may not possess the skills that would enable them to react quickly enough or to take the right decision. As a result, there needs to be methods employed which can encourage people to maintain their driving skills, which are turned to the needs of particular drivers. This project specifically explored how to profile driver performance and the development of tools that focus on safe driving within semi-autonomous vehicles. The study focuses on how different levels of task load affect unscheduled takeovers and subsequent driving performance. In addition, it investigates if retaining situation awareness of the driver in phases of autonomous driving helps to mitigate negative effects. Results include findings about the influence of Situation Awareness and initial driving skills on deskilling effects over time, a taxonomy of vehicle handover situations, a simulator platform for deployment in participants home with an initial study, and additional work on regulation for automated vehicles of Levels 3 and above, which eventually resulted in the Top Citizen Science companion project GeFaBe (Gemeinsam Fahren wir Besser - Together we Drive Better).