Secondary Tasks Delay Takeover Time in Automated Vehicles
Many recent human factors studies of takeover time in automated vehicles have looked at how long it takes a driver to switch out of automation mode, usually in critical situations. Alexander Eriksson and Neville Stanton at the University of Southampton, focusing on automation takeover time in non-critical situations, took what is likely the first in-depth look at how long it takes drivers to transition from manual to automated driving.
Eriksson and Stanton also found that under non-critical conditions, drivers needed 1.9 to 25.7 seconds to take over control from the automation. Such a large range reflects a variety of driver behavior and environmental conditions. The challenge for designers then becomes accommodating the full range of response times rather than limiting design parameters to mean or median transition times in the switch to and from automated and manual driving modes.
The authors note that their findings can guide policy makers in setting guidelines for how much lead time a driver will need before taking over from the automation. But they caution that “if normal, noncritical control transitions are designed based on the data obtained in studies utilizing critical situations, there is a risk of unwanted consequences.” For instance, a too-short lead time (e.g., 7 seconds prior to taking control, as found in some studies of critical response time) could prevent drivers from responding optimally, resulting in a stressed transition process whereby drivers may accidentally swerve, making sudden lane changes or braking harshly. Such actions are acceptable in safety-critical scenarios when drivers may have to avoid a crash but could pose a safety hazard for other road users in non-critical situations.
Source: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
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