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Video entertainment to mitigate safety risks during prolonged automated driving: Impacts on cognitive load, fatigue,
Jun Ma1, Lizhuo Zang2, Jiateng Li2
1School of Automotive Studies, Tongji University, No. 4800, Cao-an Road, Jiading District, Shanghai, 201804, China; College of design and innovation, Tongji University, No. 281 Fuxin Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200092, China.
Abstract:
As vehicles are expected to shift from manual to automated driving, the role of human drivers changes from active control to passive supervision. However, prolonged disengagement from the driving task may induce passive task-related (PTR) fatigue, which may negatively impact takeover performance. The present study sought to investigate whether video entertainment during prolonged automated driving can mitigate these risks. A driving simulation experiment was conducted with 32 participants who experienced varying durations of automated driving time (ADT) ranging from 15 to 60 min, both with and without video entertainment. Cognitive load, fatigue, and takeover performance were assessed using objective and subjective measures. Linear mixed effects models were employed to analyze the effects of video entertainment, ADT, and their interaction on the dependent variables. The results indicated that video entertainment not only increased cognitive load, but also effectively suppressed the growth of fatigue with longer ADT, as reflected by blink frequency and KSS scores. Furthermore, video entertainment reduced safety risks in prolonged automation scenarios by shortening takeover time and increasing the minimum time to collision. These findings suggest that video entertainment can improve comfort and takeover safety under prolonged automated driving scenarios by mitigating PTR fatigue.
