Mehdi Farid

How traffic situations and non-driving related tasks affect the take-over quality in highly automated driving

Highly automated driving constitutes a temporary transfer of the primary driving task from the driver to the automated vehicle. In case of system limits, drivers take back control of the vehicle. This study investigates the effect of varying traffic situations and non-driving related tasks on the take-over process and quality. The experiment is conducted in a high-fidelity driving simulator. The standardized visual Surrogate Reference Task (SuRT) and the cognitive n-back Task are used to simulate the non-driving related tasks. Participants experience four different traffic situations. Results of this experiment show a strong influence of the traffic situations on the take-over quality in a highway setting, if the traffic density is high. The non-driving related tasks SuRT and the n-back Task show similar effects on the take-over process with a higher total number of collisions by the SuRT in the high density traffic situation.

How Automation Level and System Reliability Influence Driver Performance in a Cut-In Situation

This study evaluated the effect of different levels of automation and system reliability on driver performance in a cut-in motorway situation. The study was conducted in the dynamic driving simulator of the BMW Group with 65 participants. Driving data and an electrocardiogram (ECG) were recorded. The recorded driving data confirmed an automation effect. Concerning the type of automation, drivers’ response was found to be significantly faster in the manual driving condition than in the partial automated driving condition. Moreover, significant differences were found for the minimum time to collision (TTC) and the maximum deceleration in favor of the manual driving condition. In addition, it was confirmed that system reliability does influence the driver performance in a critical situation. The findings indicate that higher system reliability causes a delay in the brake response time, higher maximum deceleration and lower minimum TTC. Additionally, a close correlation could be seen between the TTC and the subjective criticality. The ECG data did not show effects.