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K. Weigl, C. Schartmüller, P. Wintersberger, M. Steinhauser, A. Riener:
"The influence of experienced severe road traffic accidents on take-over reactions and non-driving-related tasks in an automated driving simulator study";
Accident Analysis and Prevention, 162 (2021), 162.

Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are an ever-existing threat to all road users. Automated vehicles (AVs; SAE Level
3-5) are developed in many countries. They are promoted with numerous benefits such as increased safety
yielding less RTAs, less congestion, less greenhouse gas emissions, and the possibility of enabling non-driving
related tasks (NDRTs). However, there has been no study which has investigated different NDRT conditions,
while comparing participants who experienced a severe RTA in the past with those who experienced no RTA.
Therefore, we conducted a driving simulator study (N = 53) and compared two NDRT conditions (i.e., auditoryspeech (ASD) vs. heads-up display (HUD)) and an accident (26 participants) with a non-accident group (27;
between-subjects design). Although our results did not reveal any interaction effect, and no group difference
between the accident and the non-accident group on NDRT, take-over request (TOR), and driving performance,
we uncovered for both groups better performances for the HUD condition, whereas a lower cognitive workload
was reported for the ASD condition. Nevertheless, there was no difference for technology trust between the two
conditions. Albeit we observed higher self-ratings of PTSD symptoms for the accident than for the non-accident
group, there were no group differences on depression and psychological resilience self-ratings. We conclude that
severe RTA experiences do not undermine NDRT, TOR, and driving performance in a SAE Level 3 driving
simulator study, although PTSD symptoms after an RTA may affect the psychological wellbeing.

Severe RTA experiences, Automated driving ,SAE Level 3, TOR, Non-driving-related tasks, PTSD, Depression and psychological resilience

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2021.106408

https://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/publik_301987.pdf