ABSTRACT
Up until now, this book has been concerned with analysing the impact of differing levels of automation on the role of the driver using the theoretical underpinnings of Distributed Cognition. While this is extremely important, it only represents part of the overall road transportation network. In fact, the functioning of the road transportation network is based upon an infinite number of complex interactions and interdependencies between multiple system agents at a number of levels (Salmon et al., 2014). These include system agents within the road environment (RE; e.g. drivers, pedestrians and vehicles), traffic management centres (TMCs; e.g. traffic management operator and road traffic officers) and external agencies (EAs; e.g. emergency services and radio stations). While these categories of system agent are typically analysed independently from one another, a more holistic sociotechnical systems approach would apply the Distributed Cognition approach at the macro-level.
