How Will Drivers and Passengers Interact in Future Automated Vehicles?

Large, David R.; Harvey, Catherine; Burnett, Gary

Abstract

The presence of one or more passengers has been shown to distract drivers during manual driving, with reported reductions in situational awareness, an increase in the risk of taking unsafe actions, and an increased risk of a fatal crash, particularly in the case of young drivers. However, the presence of a passenger during Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Level 3 conditional driving automation (SAE, 2021) has, to date, received no empirical attention. Building on previous studies funded by the RAC Foundation (Burnett et al., 2019; Shaw et al., 2020), we invited 18 driver/passenger pairings (12 of the passengers in which were also themselves qualified and experienced drivers) to undertake three authentic journeys in the Human Factors Research Group’s driving simulator at the University of Nottingham. As before, SAE Level 3 conditional driving automation was activated on the motorway, and drivers and passengers were free to undertake any activities they deemed acceptable while the vehicle was in control, with the aim of preserving important motivational aspects. Inspired by our previous work, the research questions posed by the current study were:
1. What will drivers and passengers naturally do in future automated vehicles?
2. What impact does the presence of a passenger have on the driving task – that is, during periods of automation and also during the resumption of the driving task?
3. How does the presence of a passenger affect levels of situational awareness, workload, trust and acceptance?

Citation

Large, D. R., Harvey, C., & Burnett, G. (2024). How Will Drivers and Passengers Interact in Future Automated Vehicles?. RAC Foundation

• Report Type: Technical Report
• Acceptance Date: Jul 12, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jul 12, 2024
• Publication Date: Jul 12, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 12, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 16, 2024
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/37156453
• Publisher URL: https://www.racfoundation.org/research/safety/how-will-drivers-and-passengers-interact-in-future-automated-vehicles
• Additional Information: The findings come from a University of Nottingham study for the RAC Foundation into the behaviour of 17 motorists, each accompanied by a front seat passenger, who made a number of trips in a driving simulator programmed to represent a so-called Level 3 automated vehicle.