Is My Car My Teammate? A Novel Exploration into the Effects of Driver and Vehicle Availability on Teaming with Semi-Autonomous Vehicles

Today’s advanced technologies carry more agency and autonomy in their actions, and the interactions between humans and advanced technologies are beginning to resemble more of a teaming relationship. As automated vehicles (AVs) become more intelligent, the concept of teaming with a semi-autonomous AV has gained considerable traction. However, few empirical studies exist that quantify the performance of an AV-(human) driver team. To contribute to the existing work in this area, the purpose of this study was to examine how the availability of both a vehicle and driver agent, or the unavailability of one agent, influenced teaming in driving. Fourteen participants drove a simulated semi-autonomous vehicle where the goals of the vehicle and driver varied. The vehicle’s individual goal was to manage the dynamic driving task. The driver’s individual goal was to complete a work-related document-editing task. Together, the vehicle would ask the driver about potential roadway dangers and the driver would respond to the vehicle’s queries. Their shared goals were to arrive to/from work safely and timely. Overall, introducing availability allowed for function allocations where drivers had individual goals separate from driving, leading drivers to acquire greater completion and higher accuracy on their work-related task when signaling their unavailability. When the vehicle was unavailable, 45% of the time drivers regained control of the vehicle. Drivers believed they were teaming most (79%) when the vehicle asked for their input. Study results provide initial insights into operationalizing the future vision of AVs where safety and driver productivity during commutes are maximized.