Drivers' Activities and Information Needs in an Automated Highway System

Levitan, Lee; Bloomfield, John. · 1996 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration

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Summary

This 1996 report by Levitan and Bloomfield investigates driver behavior and information needs within a generic Automated Highway System (AHS) configuration. The research addresses human factors critical to the implementation of hands-off automated travel, specifically examining what activities drivers engage in when relieved of driving responsibilities and what trip-related information they find most useful. The study was conducted as part of a broader program for the Federal Highway Administration to explore the viability of AHS technologies that require minimal roadway structural alterations. The researchers utilized the Iowa Driving Simulator to conduct three experiments involving a total of 42 participants. The first two experiments involved 36 drivers (18 aged 25–34 and 18 aged 65+) in a single-trial "noncommuter" scenario. Drivers manually drove onto a freeway, transferred control to the AHS, and traveled under automated control for at least 35 minutes. During this period, driver activities were videotaped, and a laptop computer provided access to four types of information: current location, next exit, time to destination, and traffic ahead. The third experiment involved six drivers participating in eight trials over four days to simulate a commuter experience, with automated travel lasting at least 34 minutes per trial. In this commuter study, driver activities were videotaped, but no laptop computer was provided. Results from the noncommuter experiments revealed that despite pre-experiment encouragement to bring materials, most drivers did not bring external items. Instead, the most frequent activity was using the laptop computer. Other activities included reading a strip map, talking to the experimenter, and adjusting the radio. Notably, one-third of the drivers closed their eyes for five or more consecutive seconds at least once, with females averaging 7.1 occurrences and males 5.7. Regarding information utility, drivers rated "time to destination" as significantly more useful and selected it more frequently than current location, traffic ahead, or next exit information. "Next exit" information was rated as the least useful. In the commuter experiment, driver engagement in non-driving activities remained low; only two drivers brought materials to occupy themselves by the second-to-last trial, despite knowing they would have nearly 30 minutes of automated travel. The findings suggest that drivers do not automatically engage in productive or leisure activities during automated travel, even when given the opportunity. The high frequency of eye-closing indicates a tendency toward rest or disengagement. Furthermore, the preference for "time to destination" information highlights a specific user need for trip progress monitoring over immediate navigational details. These results provide essential data for designing human-machine interfaces in Intelligent Transportation Systems, indicating that AHS designs should prioritize providing clear trip timing information and account for the likelihood of driver inactivity or rest during automated segments.

Key finding

Drivers selected time-to-destination information significantly more frequently than other options and rated it as more useful than current location or traffic ahead, while next exit information was deemed least useful.

Methodology

simulator

Sample size: 42

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• situational awareness
• automation
• automation surprise
• temporal
• manual
• traffic density

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: behavioral performance data, observational prevalence
• Methodological Resource: tool software