The implication of non-driving activities on situation awareness and take-over performance in level 3 automation

The driver’s take-over performance is of great importance for driving safety in conditionally automated driving since the driver is required to respond appropriately to control the vehicle if there is a system failure. The engagement of different non-driving activities (NDAs), considered as the main factor of the driver’s take-over performance has been investigated in this study from both perspectives of the driver’s situation awareness and take-over quality. The activities are divided into 2 groups, which are active interaction mode and passive interaction mode based on the engagement of human and object. The results suggest that the engagement of NDAs could reduce the driver’s situation awareness. Driver’s attention level is different for each activity. Particularly, active interaction mode NDAs requests more mentally demanding and drivers are not sensitive to the driving situation change when they are doing such activities. In addition, there is no significant difference in the maximum lateral error with NDAs engagement. However, it takes more time to achieve a safe control transition for drivers who are doing the NDAs. The active interaction mode NDAs request even more time. Moreover, the transition process could benefit from steering wheel haptic feedback torque, which can be considered as an effective take-over assistance system.