Citation

Wiedemann K, Naujoks F, Wörle J, Kenntner-Mabiala R, Kaussner Y, Neukum A. Accid. Anal. Prev. 2018; 115: 89-97.

Affiliation

Würzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences, WIVW, Veitshöchheim, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.aap.2018.03.001

PMID

29550612

Abstract

Automated driving systems are getting pushed into the consumer market, with varying degrees of automation. Most often the driver's task will consist of being available as a fall-back level when the automation reaches its limits. These so-called take-over situations have attracted a great body of research, focusing on various human factors aspects (e.g., sleepiness) that could undermine the safety of control transitions between automated and manual driving. However, a major source of accidents in manual driving, alcohol consumption, has been a non-issue so far, although a false understanding of the driver's responsibility (i.e., being available as a fallback level) might promote driving under its influence. In this experiment, N = 36 drivers were exposed to different levels of blood alcohol concentrations (BACs: placebo vs. 0.05% vs. 0.08%) in a high fidelity driving simulator, and the effect on take-over time and quality was assessed. The results point out that a 0.08% BAC increases the time needed to re-engage in the driving task and impairs several aspects of longitudinal and lateral vehicle control, whereas 0.05% BAC did only go along with descriptive impairments in fewer parameters.

Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Blood alcohol; Controllability; Driver fitness; Driving simulation