ABSTRACT
Although vehicle automation is not unfamiliar on today’s roads, future technology has the potential to reduce driver mental workload in addition to relieving physical workload. Previous work in our laboratory has determined that mental workload decreases significantly as more levels of automation are introduced. The current paper addresses the question of whether this picture changes across levels of driver skill, by measuring the mental workload of drivers at four different levels of skill, and under four different levels of automation. The preliminary data reported in this paper demonstrate that level of driver skill has no effect on subjective mental workload, however it does interact with level of automation on a secondary task measure. These results are interpreted with respect to potential effects on performance, with implications for safety on the roads of tomorrow.
