New Risk Management Findings Reported from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (A Model for Naturalistic Glance Behavior Around Tesla Autopilot Disengagements): Risk Management

2021 NOV 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in Risk Management. According to news reporting originating in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “We present a model for visual behavior that can simulate the glance pattern observed around driver initiated, non-critical disengagements of Tesla’s Autopilot (AP) in naturalistic highway driving. Drivers may become inattentive when using partially-automated driving systems.”

Financial supporters for this research include Advanced Vehicle Technology (AVT) Consortium, Santos Family Foundation, AVT Consortium.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “The safety effects associated with inattention are unknown until we have a quantitative reference on how visual behavior changes with automation. The model is based on glance data from 290 human initiated AP disengagement epochs. Glance duration and transition were modelled with Bayesian Generalized Linear Mixed models. The model replicates the observed glance pattern across drivers. The model’s components show that off road glances were longer with AP active than without and that their frequency characteristics changed. Driving related off-road glances were less frequent with AP active than in manual driving, while non-driving related glances to the down/center-stack areas were the most frequent and the longest (22% of the glances exceeded 2 s). Little difference was found in on-road glance duration. Visual behavior patterns change before and after AP disengagement. Before disengagement, drivers looked less on road and focused more on non-driving related areas compared to after the transition to manual driving. The higher proportion of off-road glances before disengagement to manual driving were not compensated by longer glances ahead.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The model can be used as a reference for safety assessment or to formulate design targets for driver management systems.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: A Model for Naturalistic Glance Behavior Around Tesla Autopilot Disengagements. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2021;161. Accident Analysis & Prevention can be contacted at: Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Accident Analysis & Prevention - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/accident-analysis-and-prevention/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Alberto Morando, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mit Agelab, Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, United States. Additional authors for this research include Pnina Gershon, Bruce Mehler and Bryan Reimer.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2021.106348. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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