Identifying Traffic Scenarios to Evaluate Driver Readiness in Automated Driving: An Exploratory Study 2018-01-0502

Automated vehicle technology is rapidly increasing in capability and the adoption of these technologies will become more widespread in the future. In the intermediate stages of automation where the driver is required to supplement the automated technology, it may be necessary to evaluate the driver’s readiness to take-over a part or of all the dynamic driving task (SAE, 2016). Specifically, while driving with a level 2 or 3 automated driving feature, a challenge may be that drivers with low readiness fail to take over in an appropriate manner.

One important implication of assessing driver readiness is to assess driver state. In this study, we investigated candidate for a driver readiness index which was compared between manual driving (Level 0) and ACC driving (Level 1).

Additionally, one more method to evaluate the readiness of the driver is to measure whether the driver anticipates potential hazards (i.e., does their foot hover over the brake or throttle). To encourage this type of behavior, vehicles could include a human-machine interface (HMI) that supports the driver to understand where potential hazards exist; however, this would need to be designed to prevent annoyance. The hypothesis for the series of studies was that showing overall traffic status allows the driver to more rapidly prepare for potential hazards when compared with no additional information (i.e., next lane vehicle turn signal). This part of the current study measured driver behavior and traffic data along a designated route in a naturalistic setting. Several traffic scenarios were identified that include overt anticipatory behavior.

In this paper, we had two research questions. One is how to measure driver readiness level. Two is what type of information would be useful for maintaining readiness.