OESDs in an on-road study of semi-automated vehicle to human driver handovers

Neville A Stanton,Nermin Caber,James W Brown,Mike Bradley,Joy Richardson,Simon Thompson,Jisun Kim,Kirsten M A Revell,Lee Skrypchuk,Pat Langdon

doi:10.1007/s10111-021-00682-z

Abstract

Design of appropriate interaction and human–machine interfaces for the handover of control between vehicle automation and human driver is critical to the success of automated vehicles. Problems in this interfacing between the vehicle and driver have led, in some cases, to collisions and fatalities. In this project, Operator Event Sequence Diagrams (OESDs) were used to design the handover activities to and from vehicle automation. Previous work undertaken in driving simulators has shown that the OESDs can be used to anticipate the likely activities of drivers during the handover of vehicle control. Three such studies showed that there was a strong correlation between the activities drivers represented in OESDs and those observed from videos of drivers in the handover process, in driving simulators. For the current study, OESDs were constructed during the design of the interaction and interfaces for the handover of control to and from vehicle automation. Videos of drivers during the handover were taken on motorways in the UK and compared with the predictions from the OESDs. As before, there were strong correlations between those activities anticipated in the OESDs and those observed during the handover of vehicle control from automation to the human driver. This means that OESDs can be used with some confidence as part of the vehicle automation design process, although validity generalisation remains an important goal for future research.

Highlights

The design of the interface between human driver and vehicle automation will be critical for successful handovers, especially when control of the vehicle is being handed back to the human driver (Eriksson et al 2019; Eriksson and Stanton 2017a, b; Clark et al 2019a)
The analysis presented in this paper is based on a use-case of vehicle automation handover scenario on a UK motorway with a SAE level 3 vehicle (SAE 2016)
The data from the three handovers from the automated vehicle to the human driver are summarised in Table 2 for each participant

Summary

Introduction

The design of the interface between human driver and vehicle automation will be critical for successful handovers, especially when control of the vehicle is being handed back to the human driver (Eriksson et al 2019; Eriksson and Stanton 2017a, b; Clark et al 2019a). The problem of handing back control from an automated system to a human operator is not restricted to the road domain, as examples from aviation have shown (Stanton and Marsden 1996; Salmon et al 2016). The hand-back of control of the aircraft was misunderstood by the pilots, who seemed to think that the aircraft was in an over-speed condition This is a classic example of mode confusion (Sarter and Woods 1995). The design of the Cognition, Technology & Work handover is critical for success (Banks et al 2018b; Clark et al 2019b; Eriksson et al 2019)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion