Browsing by Author "Ferris, Thomas"

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    Countermeasures to Detect and Combat Inattention While Driving Partially Automated Systems
    Paras, Carolina Rodriguez; Ferris, Thomas (Safe-D University Transportation Center, 2023-09)
    Vehicle manufacturers are introducing increasingly sophisticated vehicle automation systems to improve driving efficiency, comfort, and safety. Despite these improvements, partially and fully automated vehicles introduce new safety risks to the driving environment. Driver inattention can contribute to increased risk, especially when control transfers from automation to the human driver. To combat inattention and ensure safe and timely transitions of control, this study investigated the effectiveness of a vehicle cuing system that engages different sensory modalities (e.g., visual, auditory, and tactile) and both simple and complex cue messages to announce the need for manual takeover. Twenty-four participants completed a driving simulator study involving scripted driving sections with and without partial automation. Participants navigated six scripted automation failure events, some preceded by takeover cues. Measures of driving performance, safety, secondary task performance, and physiological indices of workload did not differ significantly based on display type or complexity. However, a clear trend showed that, compared to events not associated with takeover cues, driver reaction time to automation failure is substantially faster when preceded by cues of any type or complexity. This study provides evidence of the benefit of supporting driver situational awareness, safety, and performance by issuing cues and guiding drivers in taking control when the vehicle system predicts a likely automation failure.
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    Evaluating Emotion Regulation Techniques for Supporting Driving Safety and Performance
    Susindar, Sahinya; Ferris, Thomas (Safe-D National UTC, 2023-11)
    People operating motor vehicles are often required to engage in decision-making while under substantial cognitive loads imposed by the driving environment. In such situations, distractions, both external and internal, can compromise the safety of individuals and the system. Driving under the influence of elevated emotions has been shown to increase the risk associated with driving by 10 times compared to driving in a calmer emotional state. Aggressive driving behaviors, which include driver interaction with other drivers on the roadway, lane change behavior, and speeding, are often associated with rage and anger, but they are also seen in the experience of elevated states of happiness. Therefore, there is a need for interventions to deescalate elevated emotional states in a manner that improves driving safety and performance while imposing minimal additional load on the driver to engage with these interventions. This study employed three interventions that utilized different sensory modalities and a range of cognitive demands from the driver and compared them to driving under anger and happiness with no intervention. Results suggest that the use of interventions can have a positive effect on aspects of driving, such as tailgating, speeding, and yellow light behavior, as well as the driver’s workload.