With a Little Help From My Car: Sharing Automated Vehicle's Situation Awareness Reduces Driver-Initiated Automation...

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Automated Driving Systems
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Automated vehicles (AVs) are expanding, yet driver interaction in complex urban settings remains poorly understood.
• Drivers exhibit over-reliance or under-reliance on automation, leading to misuse or disuse.
• Sharing vehicle situation awareness (VSA) may improve driver response during automated system takeovers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how sharing VSA information impacts driver takeover behavior in urban automated driving.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of different VSA elements (perception, comprehension, projection) on driver interaction.
• To assess VSA sharing in simulated complex urban driving scenarios.

Main Methods:

• A driving simulator study tested VSA information sharing via augmented reality head-up displays (AR HUDs).
• Participants experienced takeover scenarios with varying VSA elements: object highlighting, confidence assessment, and trajectory information.
• Two urban scenarios (parking lane, intersection) were simulated.

Main Results:

• Sharing VSA reduced driver-initiated automation disengagement before takeover requests, without delaying responses.
• Perception information alone had no effect, but egocentric projection and confidence assessment significantly improved driver interaction.
• The parking lane scenario showed quicker responses and less severe braking during takeovers.

Conclusions:

• Specific VSA information combinations effectively reduce driver-initiated automation disengagement in urban AVs.
• The type and presentation of shared VSA significantly influence human-automation interaction.
• Findings inform the design of AV systems for safer and more intuitive driver-vehicle collaboration.