Visual response to attentional demand in increasing levels of automation: A situated approach
Licentiate thesis, 2017

Introduction: Adaptive cruise control (ACC) is a system that automates the longitudinal control of the vehicle, and maintains safety margins to a lead vehicle. ACC has been shown to have positive safety effects in reducing the exposure to critical situations. However, ACC in normal driving has also been shown to generally decrease the drivers’ attention devoted to monitor the road ahead. A number of studies claim that automated systems, such as ACC, may have detrimental effects, e.g., due to lack of supervisory control. In fact, ACC requires the drivers’ constant supervision to regain control if needed, otherwise drivers may fail to cope with situations beyond the system’s capabilities. ACC is a low level of automation; as these systems evolve unintended effects on drivers’ behavior[A1]  may accentuate. Objectives: Automation is an increasingly important area[A2]  of research in transportation. There is a need to understand the effects of automation on drivers’ behavior, and to assess the safety implications thereof. Most research is limited to simulator experiments; the effects in real-world driving remain unclear. Methods: Visual behavior was investigated when driving with ACC and a critical situation was encountered in real-world driving. Critical situations were identified as the onset of the frontal collision warning (FCW), a system that warns on an impending lead-vehicle conflict. Results: The findings show that automation does affect visual behavior. In general, compared to manual driving, drivers devoted less attention at the forward road when using ACC. However, the results show that visual behavior is tightly coupled to driving situation characteristics, and drivers are responsive to perceptual cues that alert of an impending threat. Conclusion: The results provide knowledge essential for safety assessment of automated systems. These results have implications for development of safe automated systems, to promote and support an appropriate driver response in critical situations.

real-world driving

naturalistic data

human factors

automation

visual behavior

driving demand

Attention

Svea (room Gamma), Forskningsgången 4, Chalmers campus Lindholmen
Opponent: Associate Professor Christian Berger​, Chalmers University of Technology

Author

Alberto Morando

Chalmers, Applied Mechanics, Vehicle Safety

The timecourse of driver visual attention in naturalistic driving with Adaptive Cruise Control and Forward Collision Warning

International Conference on Driver Distraction and Inattention, 4th, 2015, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia,; (2015)

Paper in proceeding

Areas of Advance

Transport

Subject Categories

Applied Psychology

Vehicle Engineering

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

Thesis for the degree of Licentiate – Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences: 2017:03

Publisher

Chalmers

Svea (room Gamma), Forskningsgången 4, Chalmers campus Lindholmen

Opponent: Associate Professor Christian Berger​, Chalmers University of Technology

More information

Created

5/11/2017