Effects of Alert Cue Specificity on Situation Awareness in Transfer of Control in Level 3 Automation

Drivers in a Level 3 automation environment typically need at least 8 s following a manual takeover request to achieve appropriate levels of situation awareness. Studies that have derived this time estimate use general audio alerts that suggest a transfer of control from the automation to the driver might be required. The current experiment examined if improvements in younger drivers’ situation awareness might be observed in as little as 4 s before a latent hazard might materialize and a transfer of control occurs if more specific audio alerts are used. Younger drivers either drove manually with no cue or in one of four automation conditions: (a) a general cue condition, (b) a condition that described the risky features of the roadway and the location of those features, (c) a condition that contained information about the actual identity of the threat and the required behavior, and (d) a combination cue condition (both environment and threat cue). Eye movements were recorded as drivers completed six scenarios in a simulated automated driving experiment. The results showed that audio cues that contained information about risky roadway features increased the detection of latent hazards by almost 40% compared with when a general cue or a threat cue was used. Performance with the combined cue was no better than performance with the environment cue. The environment cue gives drivers the critical seconds needed to mitigate a potential crash. Results are informative about which types of alerts to use to inform drivers of upcoming hazards.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.3141/2663-04
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780309442060
• Authors:
  • Wright, Timothy J
  • Agrawal, Ravi
  • Samuel, Siby
  • Wang, Yuhua
  • Zilberstein, Shlomo
  • Fisher, Donald L
• Publication Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 27–33
• Monograph Title: Human Performance, User Information, and Simulation
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 2663
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age groups; Alertness; Autonomous land vehicles; Behavior; Drivers; Proximity detectors; Warning systems
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01623645
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309442060
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-01140
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 25 2017 3:08PM