Institute for Transport Studies
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Human Factors and Vehicle Automation
The good, the bad and the ugly
Tyron Louw
National Road Safety Conference
25-26th November, 2014
The Grand, Brighton, UK
The race is ON!
The race is on!
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Automated? Driverless? Self-driving?
Platooning Level 2 & 3
Highly automated/dual mode vehicles
Level 2 & 3
Self-driving autonomous
trucks Level 2 & 3
Connected Vehicles
Automated Road Transport
Systems Level 4
Military driverless vehicles Level 4
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Automated? Driverless? Self-driving?
Definitions are Important!
Autonomous
•“not subject to control from outside; independent” 1
•“undertaken or carried on without outside control” 2
HUMANS STILL NEEDED!
Automated
•“automatically controlled operation of an apparatus, process or
system by mechanical or electronic devices that take the place of
human labour” 1
Sources:
1
http://dictionary.reference.com
2 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary
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Levels of Automation
Level 4 Full Self-Driving Automation
Level 3 Limited Self-Driving Automation
Level 2 Combined Function Automation
2014-17
Level 1 Function-specific Automation
Level 0 No-Automation
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
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Focus of this talk is on the
human factors of Level 2 and
Level 3 vehicle automation
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The GOOD – The claims
• Without driver error, fewer vehicle
crashes, fewer deaths
NOT A NEW IDEA!
• Increased mobility of the young, the
elderly, and the disabled
• More efficient traffic flow, decreased
congestion
• Engage in other activities, lower costs
of travel time
Science Digest, April 1958
• Increase fuel efficiency
• No need for parking spaces
Source: Rand Corporation (2014)
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The BAD
NHTSA (2013)
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Lessons from aviation
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The BAD
Fact: Human error accounts for 90% of road
accidents
Claim: Vehicle automation will remove the
human and therefore eliminate 90% of road
accidents
TRUE or FALSE?
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The BAD
My answer?
FALSE
Why?
Automation does not remove the
human from the driving task
It simply changes its role within it
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What’s the State of the Art ?
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What we DO know
• Drivers are able to return to the loop within 5 to
7 seconds (Louw, Merat & Jamson, submitted; Gold &
Bengler, 2014)
• When required to resume control drivers take
±30-45 seconds to stabilise behaviour (Merat et
al., 2014)
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What we DO know
• The higher the automation, the more drivers look
elsewhere and engage in other tasks (Merat et al., 2012,
Carsten et al., 2012).
• Situation awareness is lower than in manual and
increases with increasing automation, especially if
drivers engaged in another task (Merat et al., 2012)
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The UGLY – What we don’t know
• What is the effect of long durations under
automation on ability to resume control?
• How will impaired/older drivers handle automation?
• What are effective hand-over strategies/user
interfaces for automation?
• From driving simulator studies to the real world
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The UGLY – What we don’t know
How will drivers handle complex scenarios after automation?
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Source:
lionspire.com
The UGLY – What we don’t know
• How do we manage trust/complacency in automated
vehicles?
• Will drivers misuse automation and should we monitor this?
• What are the needs and interactions of other road users?
What does all of this mean for vehicle automation?
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What does it mean for vehicle
automation?
Design of automated driving systems needs
to be human-centred and robust
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Source: automotive.electronicspecifier.com
What does it mean for vehicle
automation?
Possible driver training for automated vehicles?
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Source: automotive.electronicspecifier.com
What does all of this mean for road safety?
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What does it mean for road safety?
How do the claims weigh up?
True or False?
• Without driver error, fewer
vehicle crashes, fewer deaths
Initially fewer minor crashes,
eventually fewer deaths
• Increased mobility of the
young, the elderly, and the
disabled
Possibly for automated public
transport but not until fullautomation in personal vehicles
• Engage in other activities,
lower costs of travel time
Not until full-automation
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What does it mean for road safety?
DON’T HAVE AUTOMATION FOR THE SAKE OF
AUTOMATION
ONLY WORTH REPLACING THE HUMAN IF THE
ALTERNATIVE IS BETTER
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Institute for Transport Studies
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Thank you for your attention!
Tyron Louw
Institute for Transport Studies
University of Leeds
t.l.louw@leeds.ac.uk
Institute for Transport Studies
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Carsten, O., Lai, F. C. H., Barnard, Y., Jamson, A. H. & Merat, N. (2012). Control task
substitution in semi-automated driving: Does it matter what aspects are automated? Human
Factors, 54, 747–761.
Gold, C. & Bengler, K. (2014). Taking Over Control from Highly Automated Vehicles.
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics
AHFE 2014, Kraków, Poland 19-23 July.
Louw, T., Merat, N. & Jamson, H. (submitted). Engaging With Automation: To be Or Not To Be
In The Loop. Driving Assessment 2015: 8th International Driving Symposium on Human
Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design.
Merat, N., Jamson, A. H., Lai, F. F. C. H., Daly, M. & Carsten, O. M. J. (2014). Transition to
manual: Driver behaviour when resuming control from a highly automated vehicle.
Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 26, 1–9.
Merat, N., Jamson, H., Lai, F., & Carsten, O. (2012). Highly automated driving, secondary task
performance and driver state. Human Factors, 54, 762–771.