The road to automated driving: Dual mode and human factors considerations

Recent technological developments have shown a transition from informative driving support systems to more automated vehicles. Although automated vehicles are designed to overcome limitations in human perception, decision making and response, there may be a downside to introducing these technologies. The downside is based on the new cooperation between the driver and the vehicle, leaving room for misinterpretation, overreliance on system performance and loss of situation awareness in case of requested transfer of control from the automated vehicle back to the driver. This article raises several human factors issues that are of importance when designing (semi-)automated vehicles, such as: the driver as a system monitor, situation awareness and system limitations. Various implications for the design of automated systems are discussed.