Each participant was tested under ‘Alert’ and ‘Distracted’ conditions. No prior training or familiarisation on the simulator, prior to the two scenario runs, was given due to time constrains.
Under ‘Alert’ conditions, for each participant:
• The simulated vehicle was positioned on a straight road, subject to a 30mph speed limit (50 km/h), in an urban environment;
• The weather was set to clear, bright and sunny;
• The simulator was set to log various kinematic and dashboard instrument parameters (see section 2.2.3);
• The participant was asked to start the vehicle via the ignition key fob, not touch either the pedals or steering wheel, but remain focused on the environment both in- and around the vehicle;
• The vehicle then accelerated to a speed of 50km/h in Level 3 autonomous mode;
• After a period of time a scripted event occurred – a broken down vehicle was detected ahead of the simulated AV;
• The simulated AV alerted the participant of the need for a transition of control by means of both visual and audio alarm;
• The participant was expected to go ‘hands-on’ and ‘feet-on’ on the controls to navigate round
the broken down vehicle, then pull over to the side of the road and stop. In ‘distracted’ conditions, the test was repeated, but with the following additional conditions:
• The vehicle was positioned on the same urban road, but the weather conditions were set to
limited visibility in the middle of a snow storm;
• Prior to the ToC event, the participant was asked to hold a mobile phone in one hand, and an (empty) coffee cup in the other, and focus on a simulated ‘in-car entertainment system’ (a
laptop playing YouTube videos), rather than on the road;
• At initiation of the ToC event the participant was expected to put the phone and drink down,
regain control of the vehicle, and navigate around the broken down vehicle as before.
绕过
A video of an example participant (participant 3), taking part in the simulator study may be seen in the file ‘Driving Simulator Movie.mov’. Figure 1 provides two screenshots – the left hand image from the ‘Alert’ test, and the right-hand one from the ‘Distracted’ test scenarios.