Global Implications of Human Tendencies Towards Automated Driving and Human Driver Availability in Autonomous Vehicles

2020 ◽  
pp. 179-192
Author(s):  
Ankit R. Patel ◽  
Flora Ferreira ◽  
Sergio Monteiro ◽  
Estela Bicho
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Automated Driving ◽  
Human Driver

scholarly journals Updating our understanding of situation awareness in relation to remote operators of autonomous vehicles

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Mutzenich ◽  
Szonya Durant ◽  
Shaun Helman ◽  
Polly Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Situation Awareness ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Automated Driving ◽  
Industry Standard ◽  
Remote Operation ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Human Driver ◽  
Driver Error ◽  
To Come ◽  
Temporary Control

AbstractThe introduction of autonomous vehicles (AVs) could prevent many accidents attributable to human driver error. However, even entirely driverless vehicles will sometimes require remote human intervention. Current taxonomies of automated driving do not acknowledge the possibility of remote control of AVs or the challenges that are unique to such a driver in charge of a vehicle that they are not physically occupying. Yet there are significant differences between situation awareness (SA) in normal driving contexts and SA in these remote driving operations. We argue that the established understanding of automated driving requires updating to include the context of remote operation that is likely to come in to play at higher levels of automation. It is imperative to integrate the role of the remote operator within industry standard taxonomies, so that regulatory frameworks can be established with regards to the training required for remote operation, the necessary equipment and technology, and a comprehensive inventory of the use cases under which we could expect remote operation to be carried out. We emphasise the importance of designing control interfaces in a way that will maximise remote operator (RO) SA and we identify some principles for designing systems aimed at increasing an RO’s sense of embodiment in the AV that requires temporary control.

Autonomous Vehicles’ Car-Following Drivability Evaluation Based on Driving Behavior Spectrum Reference Model

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812199485
Author(s):  
Xiao Qi ◽  
Ying Ni ◽  
Yiming Xu ◽  
Ye Tian ◽  
Junhua Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Numerical Test ◽  
Safety Evaluation ◽  
Driving Behavior ◽  
Car Following ◽  
Driving Behaviors ◽  
Human Driver ◽  
Normal Human ◽  
Naturalistic Driving

A large portion of the accidents involving autonomous vehicles (AVs) are not caused by the functionality of AV, but rather because of human intervention, since AVs’ driving behavior was not properly understood by human drivers. Such misunderstanding leads to dangerous situations during interaction between AV and human-driven vehicle (HV). However, few researches considered HV-AV interaction safety in AV safety evaluation processes. One of the solutions is to let AV mimic a normal HV’s driving behavior so as to avoid misunderstanding to the most extent. Therefore, to evaluate the differences of driving behaviors between existing AV and HV is necessary. DRIVABILITY is defined in this study to characterize the similarity between AV’s driving behaviors and expected behaviors by human drivers. A driving behavior spectrum reference model built based on human drivers’ behaviors is proposed to evaluate AVs’ car-following drivability. The indicator of the desired reaction time (DRT) is proposed to characterize the car-following drivability. Relative entropy between the DRT distribution of AV and that of the entire human driver population are used to quantify the differences between driving behaviors. A human driver behavior spectrum was configured based on naturalistic driving data by human drivers collected in Shanghai, China. It is observed in the numerical test that amongst all three types of preset AVs in the well-received simulation package VTD, the brisk AV emulates a normal human driver to the most extent (ranking at 55th percentile), while the default AV and the comfortable AV rank at 35th and 8th percentile, respectively.

Safety Enhancement by Automated Driving: What are the Relevant Scenarios?

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1686-1690
Author(s):  
Niklas Grabbe ◽  
Michael Höcher ◽  
Alexander Thanos ◽  
Klaus Bengler
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
Automated Driving ◽  
Road Traffic Safety ◽  
Human Driver ◽  
Driving Task ◽  
Promising Solution ◽  
Vehicle Automation ◽  
Safety Enhancement

Automated driving offers great possibilities in traffic safety advancement. However, evidence of safety cannot be provided by current validation methods. One promising solution to overcome the approval trap (Winner, 2015) could be the scenario-based approach. Unfortunately, this approach still results in a huge number of test cases. One possible way out is to show the current, incorrect path in the argumentation and strategy of vehicle automation, and focus on the systemic mechanisms of road traffic safety. This paper therefore argues the case for defining relevant scenarios and analysing them systemically in order to ultimately reduce the test cases. The relevant scenarios are based on the strengths and weaknesses, in terms of the driving task, for both the human driver and automation. Finally, scenarios as criteria for exclusion are being proposed in order to systemically assess the contribution of the human driver and automation to road safety.

Challenging human driver taxis with shared autonomous vehicles: a case study of Chicago

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 701-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Liu ◽  
Steven Jones ◽  
Emmanuel Kofi Adanu
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Human Driver

scholarly journals Imitating a Safe Human Driver Behaviour in Roundabouts Through Deep Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-88
Author(s):  
A. S. J. Cervera ◽  
F. J. Alonso ◽  
F. S. García ◽  
A. D. Alvarez
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Autonomous Vehicle ◽  
Driver Behaviour ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Current State ◽  
Surrounding Environment ◽  
Human Driver ◽  
State Of The Environment

Roundabouts provide safe and fast circulation as well as many environmental advantages, but drivers adopting unsafe behaviours while circulating through them may cause safety issues, provoking accidents. In this paper we propose a way of training an autonomous vehicle in order to behave in a human and safe way when entering a roundabout. By placing a number of cameras in our vehicle and processing their video feeds through a series of algorithms, including Machine Learning, we can build a representation of the state of the surrounding environment. Then, we use another set of Deep Learning algorithms to analyze the data and determine the safest way of circulating through a roundabout given the current state of the environment, including nearby vehicles with their estimated positions, speeds and accelerations. By watching multiple attempts of a human entering a roundabout with both safe and unsafe behaviours, our second set of algorithms can learn to mimic the human’s good attempts and act in the same way as him, which is key to a safe implementation of autonomous vehicles. This work details the series of steps that we took, from building the representation of our environment to acting according to it in order to attain safe entry into single lane roundabouts.

scholarly journals An Initial Investigation of the Effects of a Fully Automated Vehicle Fleet on Geometric Design

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Khoury ◽  
Kamar Amine ◽  
Rima Abi Saad
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Autonomous Vehicle ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Geometric Design ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Sight Distance ◽  
Human Driver ◽  
Projected Change ◽  
Vehicle Fleet ◽  
Stopping Sight Distance

This paper investigates the potential changes in the geometric design elements in response to a fully autonomous vehicle fleet. When autonomous vehicles completely replace conventional vehicles, the human driver will no longer be a concern. Currently, and for safety reasons, the human driver plays an inherent role in designing highway elements, which depend on the driver’s perception-reaction time, driver’s eye height, and other driver related parameters. This study focuses on the geometric design elements that will directly be affected by the replacement of the human driver with fully autonomous vehicles. Stopping sight distance, decision sight distance, and length of sag and crest vertical curves are geometric design elements directly affected by the projected change. Revised values for these design elements are presented and their effects are quantified using a real-life scenario. An existing roadway designed using current AASHTO standards has been redesigned with the revised values. Compared with the existing design, the proposed design shows significant economic and environmental improvements, given the elimination of the human driver.

Influence of Autonomous Vehicles on Car-Following Behavior of Human Drivers

2019 ◽  
Vol 2673 (12) ◽  
pp. 367-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yalda Rahmati ◽  
Mohammadreza Khajeh Hosseini ◽  
Alireza Talebpour ◽  
Benjamin Swain ◽  
Christopher Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Driving Behavior ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Microscopic Simulation ◽  
Car Following ◽  
The Road ◽  
Human Driver ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
On The Road

Despite numerous studies on general human–robot interactions, in the context of transportation, automated vehicle (AV)–human driver interaction is not a well-studied subject. These vehicles have fundamentally different decision-making logic compared with human drivers and the driving interactions between AVs and humans can potentially change traffic flow dynamics. Accordingly, through an experimental study, this paper investigates whether there is a difference between human–human and human–AV interactions on the road. This study focuses on car-following behavior and conducted several car-following experiments utilizing Texas A&M University’s automated Chevy Bolt. Utilizing NGSIM US-101 dataset, two scenarios for a platoon of three vehicles were considered. For both scenarios, the leader of the platoon follows a series of speed profiles extracted from the NGSIM dataset. The second vehicle in the platoon can be either another human-driven vehicle (scenario A) or an AV (scenario B). Data is collected from the third vehicle in the platoon to characterize the changes in driving behavior when following an AV. A data-driven and a model-based approach were used to identify possible changes in driving behavior from scenario A to scenario B. The findings suggested there is a statistically significant difference between human drivers’ behavior in these two scenarios and human drivers felt more comfortable following the AV. Simulation results also revealed the importance of capturing these changes in human behavior in microscopic simulation models of mixed driving environments.

scholarly journals Development of Deep Learning Based Human-Centered Threat Assessment for Application to Automated Driving Vehicle

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donghoon Shin ◽  
Hyun-geun Kim ◽  
Kang-moon Park ◽  
Kyongsu Yi
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Threat Assessment ◽  
Collision Probability ◽  
Driver Model ◽  
Sequential Data ◽  
Automated Driving ◽  
Human Driver ◽  
Acceleration And Deceleration ◽  
The Individual

This paper describes the development of deep learning based human-centered threat assessment for application to automated driving vehicle. To achieve naturalistic driver model that would feel natural while safe to a human driver, manual driving characteristics are investigated through real-world driving test data. A probabilistic threat assessment with predicted collision time and collision probability is conducted to evaluate driving situations. On the basis of collision risk analysis, two kinds of deep learning have been implemented to reflect human driving characteristics for automated driving. A deep neural network (DNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN) are designed by neural architecture search (NAS), and by learning from the sequential data, respectively. The NAS is used to automatically design the individual driver’s neural network for efficient and effortless design process while ensuring training performance. Sequential trends in the host vehicle’s state can be incorporated through hand-made RNN. It has been shown from human-centered risk assessment simulations that two successfully designed deep learning driver models can provide conservative and progressive driving behavior similar to a manual human driver in both acceleration and deceleration situations by preventing collision.

Effects of Task-Induced Fatigue in Prolonged Conditional Automated Driving

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 1186-1199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Jarosch ◽  
Hanna Bellem ◽  
Klaus Bengler
Keyword(s):  
Automated Driving ◽  
Good Opportunity ◽  
Monitoring Task ◽  
Human Driver

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of task-induced fatigue in prolonged conditional automated driving on takeover performance. Background: In conditional automated driving, the driver can engage in non–driving related tasks (NDRTs) and does not have to monitor the system and the driving environment. In the event that the system hits its limits, the human driver must regain control of the car. To ensure safety, adequate driver fallback performance is necessary. Effects of the drivers’ state and the engagement in NDRTs need to be investigated. Method: Seventy-three participants experienced prolonged conditional automated rides and simultaneously had to engage in either an activating quiz or a fatiguing monitoring task (between subjects). After 50 minutes, a takeover situation occurred, and participants had to regain control of the car. Results: Prolonged conditional automated driving and simultaneously engaging in NDRTs affected the driver’s state and the takeover performance of the participants. Takeover performance was impaired when participants had to deal with monotonous NDRTs. Conclusion: An engagement in monotonous monitoring tasks in conditional automated driving affects the driver’s state and takeover performance when it comes to takeover situations. Especially in prolonged automated driving, an adequate driver state seems to be necessary for safety reasons. Application: The results of this study demonstrate that engagement in monotonous NDRTs while driving conditionally automated may negatively affect takeover performance. A monitoring of the driver state and adapted assistance in a takeover situation seems to be a good opportunity to ensure safety.

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