Ethical thought experiments such as the trolley dilemma have been investigated extensively in the past, showing that humans act in utilitarian ways, trying to cause as little overall damage as possible. These trolley dilemmas have gained renewed attention over the past few years, especially due to the necessity of implementing moral decisions in autonomous driving vehicles (ADVs). We conducted a set of experiments in which participants experienced modified trolley dilemmas as drivers in virtual reality environments. Participants had to make decisions between driving in one of two lanes where different obstacles came into view. Eventually, the participants had to decide which of the objects they would crash into. Obstacles included a variety of human-like avatars of different ages and group sizes. Furthermore, the influence of sidewalks as potential safe harbors and a condition implicating self-sacrifice were tested. Results showed that participants, in general, decided in a utilitarian manner, sparing the highest number of avatars possible with a limited influence by the other variables. Derived from these findings, which are in line with the utilitarian approach in moral decision making, it will be argued for an obligatory ethics setting implemented in ADVs.

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This work focuses on the analysis of pilots’ performance during manual flight operations in different stages of training and their influence on gaze strategy. The secure and safe operation of air traffic is highly dependent on the individual performances of the pilots. Before becoming a pilot, he/she has to acquire a broad set of skills by training to pass all the necessary qualification and licensing standards. A basic skill for every pilot is manual control operations, which is a closed-loop control process with several cross-coupled variables. Even with increased automation in the cockpit, the manual control operations are essential for every pilot as a last resort in the event of automation failure. A key element in the analysis of manual flight operations is the development over time in relation to performance and visual perception. An experiment with 28 participants (including 11 certified pilots) was conducted in a Boeing 737 simulator. For defined flight phases, the dynamic time warping method was applied to evaluate the performance for selected criteria, and eye-tracking methodology was utilized to analyze the gaze-pattern development. The manipulation of workload and individual experience influences the performance and the gaze pattern at the same time. Findings suggest that the increase of workload has an increased influence on pilots depending on the flight phase. Gaze patterns from experienced pilots provide insights into the training requirements of both novices and experts. The connection between workload, performance and gaze pattern is complex and needs to be analyzed under as many differing conditions. The results imply the necessity to evaluate manual flight operations with respect to more flight phases and a detailed selection of performance indications.

Objective This study examines whether the pilot flying’s (PF) scanning behavior is affected by the absence of the pilot monitoring (PM) and aims at deriving implications for the design of single-pilot cockpits for commercial aviation. Background Due to technological progress, a crew reduction from two-crew to single-pilot operations (SPO) might be feasible. This requires a redesign of the cockpit to support the pilot adequately, especially during high workload phases such as approach and landing. In these phases, the continuous scanning of flight parameters is of particular importance. Method Experienced pilots flew various approach and landing scenarios with or without the support of the PM in a fixed-base Airbus A320 simulator. A within-subject design was used and eye-tracking data were collected to analyze scanning behavior. Results The results confirm that the absence of the PM affects the PF’s scanning behavior. Participants spent significantly more time scanning secondary instruments at the expense of primary instruments when flying alone. Moreover, the frequency of transitions between the cockpit instruments and the external view increased while mean dwell durations on the external view decreased. Conclusion The findings suggest that the PM supports the PF to achieve efficient scanning behavior. Information should be presented differently in commercial SPO to compensate for the PM’s absence and to avoid visual overload. Application This research will help inform the design of commercial SPO flight decks providing adequate support for the pilot particularly in terms of efficient scanning behavior.

Smart glasses are increasingly commercialized and may replace or at least complement smartphones someday. Common smartphone features, such as notifications, should then also be available for smart glasses. However, notifications are of disruptive character given that even unimportant notifications frequently interrupt users performing a primary task. This often leads to distractions and performance degradation. Thus, we propose a concept for displaying notifications in the peripheral field of view of smart glasses and with different visualizations depending on the priority of the notification. We developed three icon-based notifications representing increasing priority: a transparent green icon continuously becoming more opaque (low priority), a yellow icon moving up and down (medium priority), and a red and yellow flashing icon (high priority). To evaluate the concept, we conducted a study with 24 participants who performed a primary task and should react to notifications at the same time using the Nreal Light smart glasses. The results showed that reaction times for the low-priority notification were significantly higher and it was ranked as the least distracting. The medium- and high-priority notifications did not show a clear difference in noticeability, distraction, or workload. We discuss implications of our results for the perception and visualization of notifications in the peripheral field of view of smart glasses and, more generally, for augmented reality applications.