Driver Vigilance in Automated Vehicles: Hazard Detection Failures Are a Matter of Time

Objective:The primary aim of the current study was to determine whether monitoring the roadway for hazards during automated driving results in a vigilance decrement.Background:Although automated vehicles are relatively novel, the nature of human-automation interaction within them has the classic hallmarks of a vigilance task. Drivers must maintain attention for prolonged periods of time to detect and respond to rare and unpredictable events, for example, roadway hazards that automation may be ill equipped to detect. Given the similarity with traditional vigilance tasks, we predicted that drivers of a simulated automated vehicle would demonstrate a vigilance decrement in hazard detection performance.Method:Participants “drove” a simulated automated vehicle for 40 minutes. During that time, their task was to monitor the roadway for roadway hazards.Results:As predicted, hazard detection rate declined precipitously, and reaction times slowed as the drive progressed. Further, subjective ratings of workload and task-related stress indicated that sustained monitoring is demanding and distressing and it is a challenge to maintain task engagement.Conclusion:Monitoring the roadway for potential hazards during automated driving results in workload, stress, and performance decrements similar to those observed in traditional vigilance tasks.Application:To the degree that vigilance is required of automated vehicle drivers, performance errors and associated safety risks are likely to occur as a function of time on task. Vigilance should be a focal safety concern in the development of vehicle automation.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720818761711
• Record URL:
  • http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018720818761711
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00187208
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd.
• Authors:
  • Greenlee, Eric T
  • DeLucia, Patricia R
  • Newton, David C
• Publication Date: 2018-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 465-476
• Serial:
  • Human Factors
  • Volume: 60
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0018-7208
  • EISSN: 1547-8181
  • Serial URL: http://hfs.sagepub.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attention lapses; Autonomous vehicles; Detection and identification technologies; Driver performance; Driver vehicle interfaces; Driving simulators; Fatigue (Physiological condition); Intelligent vehicles; Reaction time; Vigilance
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01673309
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 25 2018 1:49PM