Is the take-over paradigm a mere convenience?

The last decade has seen a surge of driving simulator research on automation-to-manual take-overs. In this commentary, we argue that most research within the take-over paradigm bears little resemblance to real automated driving. Furthermore, we claim that results within this paradigm could already be known based on published research from the...

Vulnerable road users and the coming wave of automated vehicles: Expert perspectives

Automated driving research over the past decades has mostly focused on highway environments. Recent technological developments have drawn researchers and manufacturers to look ahead at introducing automated driving in cities. The current position paper examines this challenge from the viewpoint of scientific experts. Sixteen Human Factors...

Acclimatizing to automation: Driver workload and stress during partially automated car following in real traffic

Automated driving systems are increasingly prevalent on public roads, but there is currently little knowledge on the level of workload and stress of drivers operating an automated vehicle in a real environment. The present study aimed to measure driver workload and stress during partially automated driving in real traffic. We recorded heart...

Rolling out the red (and green) carpet: Supporting driver decision making in automation-to-manual transitions

This paper assessed four types of human–machine interfaces (HMIs), classified according to the stages of automation proposed by Parasuraman et al. [“A model for types and levels of human interaction with automation,” IEEE Trans. Syst. Man, Cybern. A, Syst. Humans, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 286–297, May 2000]. We hypothesized that drivers would...

Effects of mental demands on situation awareness during platooning: A driving simulator study

Previous research shows that drivers of automated vehicles are likely to engage in visually demanding tasks, causing impaired situation awareness. How mental task demands affect situation awareness is less clear. In a driving simulator experiment, 33 participants completed three 40-min runs in an automated platoon, each run with a different...

A toolbox for automated driving on the STISIM driving simulator

Driving simulators have been used since the beginning of the 1930s to assist researchers in assessing driver behaviour without putting the driver in harm’s way. The current manuscript describes the implementation of a toolbox for automated driving research on the widely used STISIM platform. The toolbox presented in this manuscript allows...

Highly automated platooning: Effects on mental workload, stress, and fatigue

Automatically driving platoons of vehicles are a likely candidate for solving many existing issues of road safety and congestion. However, the psychological effects of such technology are yet to be understood. Therefore, by means of a driving simulator experiment, we aimed to assess the psychological effects of driving in a highly automated...