Highly Automated Driving Impact on Drivers’ Gaze Behaviors during a Car-Following Task

ABSTRACT

The ever-increasing degree of automation in vehicles, with drivers delegating part of the manual driving task to automation, sets new research questions in terms of human–machine cooperation. Manual steering requires drivers to gaze at a distant road sections to ensure that the vehicle follows the road curvature and at a near road sections to maintain the vehicle within the lane limits. In this experiment, gaze behaviors engaged under highly automated driving (HAD) and manual driving conditions were compared. The results show a critical decrease of the number of gazes at the near road sections for the HAD condition compared to the manual driving condition. Two human-based highly automated “driving styles” were also compared, but did not translate into significant gaze behaviors modifications. Finally, no after-effect of the HAD was found on subsequent manual driving.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Anne-Noelle Heizmann for her support in running the experiments.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the AUTODRIVE program and performed within the framework of the LABEX CORTEX [ANR-18-CE22-0002-01] of Université de Lyon, within the program “Investissements d’Avenir” [ANR-11- IDEX-0007] operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR).

Notes on contributors

J. Navarro

J. Navarro is a lecturer in psychology and cognitive sciences at the University of Lyon and has been appointed as Junior Member of the “Institut Universitaire de France”. He was awarded a PhD degree in cognitive ergonomics from the University of Nantes in 2008.

F. Osiurak

F. Osiurak is a professor of psychology at the University Lyon 2 (E.M.C. laboratory) and has been appointed Junior Member of the “Institut Universitaire de France”. He was awarded a PhD in Psychology from the University of Angers in 2007.

M. Ovigue

M. Ovigue is a MSc student in cognitive sciences at the University Lyon 2 (E.M.C laboratory).

L. Charrier

L. Charrier is a MSc student in cognitive sciences at the University Lyon 2 (E.M.C laboratory).

E. Reynaud

E. Reynaud is a lecturer in cognitive sciences at the University Lyon 2 (E.M.C laboratory). She graduated from the Grenoble Institute of Technology with a PhD in Cognitive Sciences/Computer Science in 2002.