The Effect of Urgency of Take-Over Requests During Highly Automated Driving Under Distraction Conditions

Abstract

Highly automated driving may improve driving comfort and safety in the near future. Due to possible system limits of highly automated driver support, the driver is expected to take over the vehicle control if a so-called take-over request is issued. One example of these system limits are missing or ending lines on motorways. This study focuses on the design of take-over requests in such situations. Using a motion-based driving simulator, N = 16 participants encountered different take-over situations in congested traffic that varied in their difficulty: ending lines on straight road (easy), temporary lines due to a work zone (moderate) and loss of lines in a situation with high curvature (difficult). The driver support consisted of a hands-off system that was taking over longitudinal and lateral control. Participants were asked to perform a secondary task while driving. Take-over requests were presented either visually or visual-auditory. Drivers’ hands-on times (i.e., time until driver puts hands back on the steering wheel) are lower if visual-auditory take-over requests are used in comparison to purely visual ones. Measures of lateral vehicle control also show an advantage of visual-auditory take-over requests. Differences between the take-over concepts are especially pronounced in difficult take-over situations.

Keywords: Automation, Highly Automated Driving, Take-over Request, Modality

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100646