IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v124y2019icp587-610.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Psychophysical assessment of a driver’s mental state in autonomous vehicles

Author

Listed:
  • Arakawa, Toshiya
  • Hibi, Ryosuke
  • Fujishiro, Taka-aki

Abstract

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the development of autonomous vehicles. However, some of the challenges that are associated with autonomous vehicles are yet to be resolved. Here, we investigate the user dependence on autonomous control in autopilot vehicles. Further, we verify whether drivers can control the vehicles in an appropriate manner after a system failure based on the range of biometric data. The participants in this study experienced three scenarios in a driving simulator: manual-driving, autonomous-driving, and system-failure scenarios, which forced the participants to resume manual control. The data obtained from salivary amylase depict that drivers tend to be anxious while performing the transition from the manual-driving scenario to the autonomous-driving scenario; however, all drivers have to be accustomed with the system in order to drive using a driving simulator. Thus, the difference of anxiety between various drivers is observed to be suppressed. The seat pressure data illustrate that an area having a value equal to 95% of the probability-deviation ellipse during the second day of the manual-driving and autonomous-driving scenarios is observed to have the largest value from among each driving scenario, which seems to be caused due to the driver’s concentration or fatigue. Further, the systolic blood pressures of all the drivers increased with time. However, in the autonomous-driving scenario, the average relative systolic blood pressure is, on the whole, higher than that in the manual-driving scenario. It is suggested that the drivers had never previously used an autonomous-driving system and that he/she may be uncomfortable or uneasy to autonomously control the brake, accelerator, and steering wheel. Additionally, after a system failure during the manual-driving scenario, the behavior is observed to be similar to that in the initial manual-driving scenario, and the totally average relative systolic blood pressure is higher than that during the initial manual-driving scenario. This indicates that the drivers’ mental workload is relatively low during the autonomous-driving scenario because they do not experience any stress from driving. However, the drivers’ systolic blood pressure increased because of the transition from autonomous driving to manual control and because of the mental workload to control the vehicle on their own just after using an autonomous-driving system. From the viewpoint of the brain activity in the left frontal lobe, the data indicates that the drivers’ cognition level during autonomous driving is lower than that during manual driving and that the declining tendency of the average relative hemoglobin concentration is remarkable during the manual-driving scenario after encountering a system failure. This is because the driver feels that he/she may commit mistakes during manual driving. Additionally, if he/she is driving an autonomous vehicle and if the autonomous-driving system failed, he/she does not need to pay attention to the surrounding subjects and control the vehicle. The eye-gaze data indicate that “mind distraction” occurred in the participants while resuming control after a system failure because their brain activity at this instance was relatively low. Our results indicate that drivers who depend on autonomous control systems experience stress upon switching to manual control after a system failure.

Suggested Citation

  • Arakawa, Toshiya & Hibi, Ryosuke & Fujishiro, Taka-aki, 2019. "Psychophysical assessment of a driver’s mental state in autonomous vehicles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 587-610.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:124:y:2019:i:c:p:587-610
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2018.05.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856417309849
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2018.05.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marcel Walch & Kristin Mühl & Martin Baumann & Michael Weber, 2017. "Autonomous Driving: Investigating the Feasibility of Bimodal Take-Over Requests," International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction (IJMHCI), IGI Global, vol. 9(2), pages 58-74, April.
    2. Fleetwood, J., 2017. "Public health, ethics, and autonomous vehicles," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107(4), pages 532-537.
    3. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2016.303628_6 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chimou Li & Xiaonan Li & Ming Lv & Feng Chen & Xiaoxiang Ma & Lin Zhang, 2021. "How Does Approaching a Lead Vehicle and Monitoring Request Affect Drivers’ Takeover Performance? A Simulated Driving Study with Functional MRI," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Demeulenaere, Xavier, 2020. "How challenges of human reliability will hinder the deployment of semi-autonomous vehicles," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anania, Emily C. & Rice, Stephen & Walters, Nathan W. & Pierce, Matthew & Winter, Scott R. & Milner, Mattie N., 2018. "The effects of positive and negative information on consumers’ willingness to ride in a driverless vehicle," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 218-224.
    2. Scott Robbins & Aimee van Wynsberghe, 2022. "Our New Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure: Becoming Locked into an Unsustainable Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-11, April.
    3. Fatih Canıtez, 2021. "The Adoption of Autonomous Vehicles: A Socio-Technical Transition Perspective," Alphanumeric Journal, Bahadir Fatih Yildirim, vol. 9(2), pages 143-162, December.
    4. Darja Topolšek & Dario Babić & Darko Babić & Tina Cvahte Ojsteršek, 2020. "Factors Influencing the Purchase Intention of Autonomous Cars," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Hazel Si Min Lim & Araz Taeihagh, 2019. "Algorithmic Decision-Making in AVs: Understanding Ethical and Technical Concerns for Smart Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-28, October.
    6. Rice, Stephen & Winter, Scott R. & Mehta, Rian & Tamilselvan, Gajapriya & Anania, Emily C. & Milner, Mattie N., 2021. "Identifying the factors that predict a Consumer's willingness to ride in various types of driverless vehicles," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Chikaraishi, Makoto & Khan, Diana & Yasuda, Banri & Fujiwara, Akimasa, 2020. "Risk perception and social acceptability of autonomous vehicles: A case study in Hiroshima, Japan," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 105-115.
    8. José Fernando Sabando Cárdenas & Jong Gyu Shin & Sang Ho Kim, 2020. "A Few Critical Human Factors for Developing Sustainable Autonomous Driving Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, April.
    9. Lukovics, Miklós & Udvari, Beáta & Zuti, Bence & Kézy, Béla, 2018. "Az önvezető autók és a felelősségteljes innováció [Self-driving vehicles and responsible innovation]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 949-974.
    10. Gurumurthy, Krishna Murthy & Kockelman, Kara M., 2020. "Modeling Americans’ autonomous vehicle preferences: A focus on dynamic ride-sharing, privacy & long-distance mode choices," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    11. Mohamed Alawadhi & Jumah Almazrouie & Mohammed Kamil & Khalil Abdelrazek Khalil, 0. "Review and analysis of the importance of autonomous vehicles liability: a systematic literature review," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 0, pages 1-23.
    12. Pettigrew, Simone & Dana, Liyuwork Mitiku & Norman, Richard, 2019. "Clusters of potential autonomous vehicles users according to propensity to use individual versus shared vehicles," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 13-20.
    13. McLeay, Fraser & Olya, Hossein & Liu, Hongfei & Jayawardhena, Chanaka & Dennis, Charles, 2022. "A multi-analytical approach to studying customers motivations to use innovative totally autonomous vehicles," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    14. Kassens-Noor, Eva & Dake, Dana & Decaminada, Travis & Kotval-K, Zeenat & Qu, Teresa & Wilson, Mark & Pentland, Brian, 2020. "Sociomobility of the 21st century: Autonomous vehicles, planning, and the future city," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 329-335.
    15. Wolfgang Habla & Mitesh Kataria & Peter Martinsson & Kerstin Roeder, 2024. "Should it stay, or swerve? Trading off lives in dilemma situations involving autonomous cars," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), pages 929-951, May.
    16. Mohamed Alawadhi & Jumah Almazrouie & Mohammed Kamil & Khalil Abdelrazek Khalil, 2020. "Review and analysis of the importance of autonomous vehicles liability: a systematic literature review," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 11(6), pages 1227-1249, December.
    17. Mohamed Abdel-Aty & Shengxuan Ding, 2024. "A matched case-control analysis of autonomous vs human-driven vehicle accidents," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    18. Merfeld, Katrin & Wilhelms, Mark-Philipp & Henkel, Sven & Kreutzer, Karin, 2019. "Carsharing with shared autonomous vehicles: Uncovering drivers, barriers and future developments – A four-stage Delphi study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 66-81.
    19. Carlo Pugnetti & Remo Schläpfer, 2018. "Customer Preferences and Implicit Tradeoffs in Accident Scenarios for Self-Driving Vehicle Algorithms," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-13, June.
    20. Irina Shestakova, 2024. "The Era of Digital Transition in the Prism of the Existential Threat of Job Loss: Corporate Social Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-19, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:124:y:2019:i:c:p:587-610. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.