If previous research studied acceptability of partially or highly automated driving, few of them focused on fully automated driving (FAD), including the ability to master longitudinal control, lateral control and maneuvers. The present study analyzes a priori acceptability, attitudes, personality traits and intention to use a fully automated vehicle. 421 French drivers (153 males, M = 40.2 years, age range 19-73) answered an online questionnaire. 68.1% Of the sample a priori accepted FAD. Predictors of intention to use a fully automated car (R2 =.671) were mainly attitudes, contextual acceptability and interest in impaired driving (i.e. the two components of FAD acceptability), followed by driving related sensation seeking, finally gender. FAD preferred use cases were on highways, in traffic congestion and for automatic parking. Furthermore, some drivers reported interest in impaired driving misuses, despite awareness of their responsibility for both the vehicle and the driving. These results are discussed regarding previous knowledge about acceptability of advanced driving assistance systems and consequences for the use of fully automated cars.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01471792/document

Intention to use a fully automated car: attitudes and a priori acceptability

Cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) systems have the potential to increase traffic throughput by allowing smaller headway between vehicles and moving vehicles safely in a platoon at a harmonized speed. CACC systems have been attracting significant attention from both academia and industry since connectivity between vehicles will become mandatory for new vehicles in the USA in the near future. In this paper, we review three basic and important aspects of CACC systems: communications, driver characteristics, and controls to identify the most challenging issues for their real-world deployment. Different routing protocols that support the data communication requirements between vehicles in the CACC platoon are reviewed. Promising and suitable protocols are identified. Driver characteristics related issues, such as how to keep drivers engaged in driving tasks during CACC operations, are discussed. To achieve mass acceptance, the control design needs to depict real-world traffic variability such as communication effects, driver behavior, and traffic composition. Thus, this paper also discusses the issues that existing CACC control modules face when considering close to ideal driving conditions.

A Review of Communication, Driver Characteristics, and Controls Aspects of Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC)

This paper proposes a new theory to account for the effects of underload on performance. Malleable attentional resources theory posits that attentional capacity can change size in response to changes in task demands. As such, the performance decrements associated with mental underload can be explained by a lack of appropriate attentional resources. These proposals were explored in a driving simulator experiment. Vehicle automation was manipulated at 4 levels, and mental workload was assessed with a secondary task. Eye movements were also recorded to determine whether attentional capacity varied with mental workload. The results showed a clear decrease in mental workload associated with some levels of automation. Most striking, though, were the results derived from the eye movement recordings, which demonstrated that attentional capacity varies directly with level of mental workload. These data fully supported the predictions of the new theory. Malleable attentional resources theory suggests that future vehicle designers should employ their technology in driver support systems rather than in automation to replace the driver. The implications of this theory are discussed with regard to capacity models of attention as well as to the design of future vehicle systems.

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Malleable attentional resources theory: A new explanation for the effects of mental underload on performance

Editors comment: We are proud to be able to bring to our readers this full text version of the Haddon Memorial Lecture delivered at the recent Fifth World Conference on Injury Prevention and Control in New Delhi, India. James Hedlund offers a brilliant review of one of the most important areas of debate in the entire field of injury control. This is the most complete, most perceptive, and well balanced appraisals of this complex issue I have ever read. Take the time to digest it completely. Our thanks to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for agreeing to permit us to publish it. 

Government regulations and industry practices constrain our behavior in many ways in an attempt to reduce injuries. Safety features are designed into products we use: cars now have airbags; medicine bottles have “childproof” caps. Laws require us to act in a safe manner: we must wear seat belts while driving and hard hats in construction areas. But do these measures influence our behavior in other ways? Risk compensation theory hypothesizes that they do, that we “use up” the additional safety though more risky actions.

This paper surveys risk compensation by reviewing its history, discussing its theoretical foundations, outlining evidence for and against its claims, and providing the author's own views. It concludes by discussing the relevance of risk compensation for injury prevention workers who seek to reduce unintentional injuries.

Injury prevention as a discipline began when injuries were understood to be both predictable and preventable. Most injuries are the unintended consequences of individual actions in a risky environment; they are not due to fate or to problem behavior. This understanding led to three fundamental injury prevention strategies, as described in the comprehensive report Injury in America 1:

https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/injuryprev/6/2/82.full.pdf

Risky business: safety regulations, risk compensation, and individual behavior

▪ Abstract Strategies to achieve ambitious targets for reducing road accidents (34) have largely focused on engineering and technological advancements, the modification of occupational demands, and, to a lesser extent, human factors. These factors include stress and psychological states; sleep, fatigue, and alertness; and health status. Physical activity appears to influence all these human factors but has not previously been systematically considered as a direct or indirect risk factor for driver accidents. This chapter provides an overview, within an evidence-based framework, of the impact each of these human factors has on driver performance and risk of at-work road traffic accidents and then examines how physical (in)activity may moderate and mediate these relationships. Finally, we consider practical implications for work site interventions. The review aims to offer an evidence base for the deployment of resources to promote physical activity, manage stress, facilitate sleep, reduce fatigue, and enha...

/pdf/stress-fatigue-health-and-risk-of-road-traffic-accidents-5bupr985cp.pdf

STRESS, FATIGUE, HEALTH, AND RISK OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS AMONG PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS: The Contribution of Physical Inactivity

Effects of stress on driving performance can depend on the nature of driver's stress reactions and on the traffic environment. In an experimental study, we assessed multiple dimensions of vulnerability to driver stress by a questionnaire that was validated in previous field studies and related those dimensions to performance on a driving simulator. Results were broadly consistent with prediction. A dimension of habitual dislike of driving was associated with reduced control skills, greater caution, and disturbance of moods. A measure of aggressive driving predicted more frequent and more error-prone overtaking, which are effects attributed to the use of confrontive coping strategies in interaction with other vehicles. An alertness measure predicted speed of reaction to pedestrian hazards. This research has practical applications for system design, automated monitoring of driver performance, selection and assessment of drivers, and training.

Driver stress and performance on a driving simulator.

Workload variation, intrinsic risk and utility in a simulated air traffic control task: Evidence for compensatory effects

https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/1808/1/Risk_homeostasis_theory_A_study_of_intrinsic_compensation_Hoyes_et_al.pdf

Thomas W. Hoyes

Papers

Driver stress and performance on a driving simulator.

Workload variation, intrinsic risk and utility in a simulated air traffic control task: Evidence for compensatory effects

Risk homeostasis theory - A study of intrinsic compensation

A review of risk homeostasis theory in simulated environments

Risk homeostasis: issues for future research