Associating Vehicles Automation With Drivers Functional State Assessment Systems: A Challenge for Road Safety in the Future

Conclusion Research into the effects of automation on DFS is expending due to understanding that in the near future, the human factor will remain an important component in driving and in monitoring automation. This manuscript points on: (1) The need of accurately assessing DFS, (2) Estimating the DFS may have different strategies given the level of automation, (3) Estimating the DFS can infer on interventions that are also related to automation (e.g., switching between levels of automation). Based on these understandings (points 1–3), we reviewed methods for estimating the DFS and described the potential characteristics of an in-vehicle system. With regard to the first point, commuting executive functions usually performed by the driver to ADAS is likely to make her/him less concentrated on driving. The driver can monitor the system working or be engaged in other tasks with a connection with driving (supervising the route plans through the GPS) or not (reading or phoning or discussing with other passengers). Depending on these different activities, DFS may stay at a level comparable to that required for driving (parallel activity with the same demand as driving) or can change drastically and reach a level incompatible with driving (decrease in arousal level). This seems of particular importance in case of sudden need of taking-over. With regard to point 2, the extent by which driver’s DFS remains at an adequate level is still pending and depends on different bu...
Source: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research