ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a descriptive background of the driving task. The importance of human control in car driving by contrast with piloting an airplane can be exemplified by following observations. Autopilots can take over a great many actions because of the predictability of air traffic situations and the clear criteria for their evaluation. Nature has equipped birds with elementary sensors which prevent them from colliding despite their high flying speeds. Highly skilled automobile drivers, those who have become one with their vehicle, may reach a similar level of automatic error prevention. Accidents are seldom attributable to a single cause, but are most often related to a combination of driver, vehicle, and/or environmental factors. Designers of the roadway system have taken many of these factors into account. Visibility problems, for instance, are coped with by modern public lighting and traffic information systems, and roadways are designed in accordance with category-related design rules which allow drivers to behave in an anticipatory way.
