The Effect of Takeover Performance in Relation to the Volume of Music

Music provides many drivers with entertainment during their commutes to work or in their daily driving life. With automated vehicles (AV) being on the rise in popularity, one may wonder how music can affect the driver\u27s ability to take over the AV in an emergency. We hypothesized that listening to music, especially at a louder volume, would decrease takeover performance which is the ability to retake the vehicle in case of emergency. To test the hypothesis, we conducted an experiment using a driving simulator where the participant was listening to music at two different volume levels. We monitored the status of the AV both with and without the planned trajectory that shows the route of the car. This study shows how drivers\u27 takeover response is affected by the different volume levels of music. Keywords: planned trajectory, takeover performance, augmented reality, head-up display, automated vehicles, self-driving vehicle