ABSTRACT
When it was introduced in the mid-1990s, Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) provided the first commercially available form of vehicle automation. It was not a driverless car by any means, but it was an important step in that direction. This chapter presents one of the first studies of driver workload and the ability of people to reclaim control from ACC in an emergency scenario. Previous work had suggested that there may be cause for concern. In this study we found that mental workload was indeed reduced when driving with ACC and this, in turn, was associated with a third of participants being unsuccessful in reclaiming control of the vehicle before a collision occurred. The good news for this and future technologies is that human factors insights were able to provide some simple (and cost-effective) remedies.
