Impact of physical disengagement on driver alertness: implications for precursors of a fully automated highway system

Driver disengagement is a top level service objective for AHS users. Some analysts suggest “keeping the driver in the loop” to deal with system malfunctions and have even considered the driver as obstacle detector of last resort. The present work draws together information relevant to comparing active and passive driving involvement as means of keeping the driver in the loop. The comparison is based on (1) reviews of human performance literature, (2) a driving simulator study with detection and physiological measures taken under different degrees of physical driving involvement, and (3) extrapolations beyond the simple detection task