Were they in the loop during automated driving? Links between visual attention and crash potential

Background: A proposed advantage of vehicle automation is that it relieves drivers from the moment-to-moment demands of driving, to engage in other, non-driving related, tasks. However, it is important to gain an understanding of drivers’ capacity to resume manual control, should such a need arise. As automation removes vehicle control-based measures as a performance indicator, other metrics must be explored. Methods: This driving simulator study, conducted under the European Commission (EC) funded AdaptIVe project, assessed drivers’ gaze fixations during partially-automated (SAE Level 2) driving, on approach to critical and non-critical events. Using a between-participant design, 75 drivers experienced automation with one of five out-of-the-loop (OOTL) manipulations, which used different levels of screen visibility and secondary tasks to induce varying levels of engagement with the driving task: 1) no manipulation, 2) manipulation by light fog, 3) manipulation by heavy fog, 4) manipulation by heavy fog plus a visual task, 5) no manipulation plus an n-back task. Results: The OOTL manipulations influenced drivers’ first point of gaze fixation after they were asked to attend to an evolving event. Differences resolved within one second and visual attention allocation adapted with repeated events, yet crash outcome was not different between OOTL manipulation groups. Drivers who crashed in the first critical event showed an erratic pattern of eye fixations towards the road centre on approach to the event, while those who did not demonstrated a more stable pattern. Conclusions: Automated driving systems should be able to direct drivers’ attention to hazards no less than 6 seconds in advance of an adverse outcome

Airline Pilot Non-Flight Related Activities During Cruise Flight and Perceptions on Their Safety Effects

Automation complacency, boredom, and fatigue pose significant risk to aviation. There have been many incidents and accidents as a result of these challenges to human performance. In previous studies pilots have admitted to performing non- flight related activities in order to deal with these challenges. However, no research has been done on the frequency and perceived safety effects of non-flight related activities. If pilots are engaging in activities intended to counter these challenges, it is important to know the frequency and how pilots feel these non-flight activities affect safety. This study used a survey tool to gather information regarding non-flight related activities from airline pilots in the United States. Participants provided data on frequency of non-flight related activities, perceptions of their safety effects, opinions on the activities related to automation complacency, boredom, and fatigue, and general information on the positive and negative outcomes of these activities. Results suggest that pilots routinely engage in non-flight related activities during cruise flight and perceive most of the activities to be safe. In addition, pilots believe that these activities help to prevent boredom, which then helps to prevent automation complacency and fatigue. Pilots seem to understand that these activities can have negative safety implications, but overall have more positive outcomes

To Drive or to Be Driven? The Impact of Autopilot, Navigation System, and Printed Maps on Driver’s Cognitive Workload and Spatial Knowledge

The technical advances in navigation systems should enhance the driving experience, supporting drivers’ spatial decision making and learning in less familiar or unfamiliar environments. Furthermore, autonomous driving systems are expected to take over navigation and driving in the near future. Yet, previous studies pointed at a still unresolved gap between environmental exploration using topographical maps and technical navigation means. Less is known about the impact of the autonomous system on the driver’s spatial learning. The present study investigates the development of spatial knowledge and cognitive workload by comparing printed maps, navigation systems, and autopilot in an unfamiliar virtual environment. Learning of a new route with printed maps was associated with a higher cognitive demand compared to the navigation system and autopilot. In contrast, driving a route by memory resulted in an increased level of cognitive workload if the route had been previously learned with the navigation system or autopilot. Way-finding performance was found to be less prone to errors when learning a route from a printed map. The exploration of the environment with the autopilot was not found to provide any compelling advantages for landmark knowledge. Our findings suggest long-term disadvantages of self-driving vehicles for spatial memory representations

Associating Vehicles Automation With Drivers Functional State Assessment Systems: A Challenge for Road Safety in the Future

In the near future, vehicles will gradually gain more autonomous functionalities. Drivers’ activity will be less about driving than about monitoring intelligent systems to which driving action will be delegated. Road safety, therefore, remains dependent on the human factor and we should identify the limits beyond which driver’s functional state (DFS) may no longer be able to ensure safety. Depending on the level of automation, estimating the DFS may have different targets, e.g., assessing driver’s situation awareness in lower levels of automation and his ability to respond to emerging hazard or assessing driver’s ability to monitor the vehicle performing operational tasks in higher levels of automation. Unfitted DFS (e.g., drowsiness) may impact the driver ability respond to taking over abilities. This paper reviews the most appropriate psychophysiological indices in naturalistic driving while considering the DFS through exogenous sensors, providing the more efficient trade-off between reliability and intrusiveness. The DFS also originates from kinematic data of the vehicle, thus providing information that indirectly relates to drivers behavior. The whole data should be synchronously processed, providing a diagnosis on the DFS, and bringing it to the attention of the decision maker in real time. Next, making the information available can be permanent or intermittent (or even undelivered), and may also depend on the automation level. Such interface can include recommendations for decision support or simply give neutral instruction. Mapping of relevant psychophysiological and behavioral indicators for DFS will enable practitioners and researchers provide reliable estimates, fitted to the level of automation

Aerospace medicine and biology: A cumulative index to a continuing bibliography (supplement 384)

This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in Supplements 372 through 383 of Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography. It includes seven indexes: subject, personal author, corporate source, foreign technology, contract number, report number, and accession number