Take-Over Requests for Automated Driving

Abstract

Automated driving is no longer a future scenario. Several automotive OEM have already presented automated vehicles, which do not require driver's constant attention on the road. But, there are still some challenges to solve before series vehicles can pass from assisted driving to highly automated driving [1; 2]. A principal research question to deal with is how to design Take-Over-Requests (TOR) with respect to the human machine interface (HMI) and reaction times to comply with a TOR. On this account, a driving simulator study with 44 drivers has been conducted at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering. The study took place in a highly automated driving vehicle which controlled longitudinal and lateral control on a highway scenario. Approaching a construction site different TOR strategies were presented. Within this study the time users needed to react on a TOR was measured for a highway scenario. The drivers were fully distracted by a secondary task, a challenging quiz game on a mobile phone. The different TOR strategies comprised a variation of the location for TOR presentation (integrated mobile phone or in-vehicle HMI) as well as a variation of the TOR modality (TOR with brake jerk/without brake jerk). This paper will present and discuss the results in terms of reaction times and driver behavior strategies to comply with the TOR. It delivers advice on the design of transition strategies between automated and manual driving.