Does a faster takeover necessarily mean it is better? A study on the influence of urgency and takeover-request lead...

During conditionally automated driving, drivers are sometimes required to take over control of the vehicle if a so-called takeover request (TOR) is issued. TORs are generally issued due to system limitations. This study investigated the effect of different urgency scenarios and takeover-request lead times (TORlts) on takeover performance and safety. The experiment was conducted in a real vehicle-based driving simulator. Manual driving, 7-second TORlt and 5-second TORlt were each tested. Participants experienced three progressively urgent driving scenarios: one cut-in scenario and two obstacle-avoidance scenarios. The results indicate that the TORlt significantly affected takeover performance and safety. Within a certain range, the longer the TORlt, the safer the takeover. However, while takeover reaction time depended mainly on the length of the TORlt and was not significantly related to other factors, such as workload, greater workloads that were caused by the TORlt were associated with shorter reaction times and decreased safety. This is evidence that the reaction time should not be used as the preferred indicator to evaluate takeover performance and safety. Indicators, such as workload, minimum TTC, feature point distribution position and slope of the obstacle avoidance trajectory, can better measure and evaluate takeover performance and safety. This study can provide data support for takeover safety evaluation of conditionally automated driving.