Safer automation through better human-technology collaboration
As Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) functions become more sophisticated, ensuring safe, understandable and inclusive human-vehicle interaction remains a key challenge. Today’s driver assistance and automated driving systems do not always respond to the different needs, abilities and experience levels of drivers. This can lead to confusion when drivers need to take back control of the vehicle, reduces confidence in the technology and ultimately affects road safety.
How should a vehicle communicate with drivers with different levels of experience? How can people learn what a system can – and cannot – safely do? And how can researchers assess whether drivers genuinely understand automation rather than simply trust or like it? This is what two new Horizon Europe projects, AutHUMate and SENSEI, are looking into.
Both projects explore how adaptive interfaces, personalised communication and driver training can support safer, more intuitive and trustworthy interactions with Level 2 and Level 3 automated systems. Their work also addresses the risks of overreliance and insufficient trust, emphasising the need for drivers to understand when and how to engage with automation.
They also place strong emphasis on inclusiveness and societal readiness, considering the needs of diverse user groups, from inexperienced to professional drivers, elderly and users with accessibility needs, examining throughout development how proposed technologies respond to their expectations and concerns.
The two projects have started exchanging knowledge and perspectives from an early stage, creating an opportunity to learn from each other from the outset rather than only comparing results at the end.
Read more about the two projects on their respective websites1 and take the test on How do you really interact with your vehicle:
Source: The press release can be found here