The Preliminary Study on Driver’s Brain Activation during Take Over Request of Conditional Autonomous Vehicle

Abstract

Conditional autonomous vehicles should hand over control to the driver according on driving situations. However, if the driver is immersed in a non-driving task, the driver may not be able to make suitable decisions. Previous studies have confirmed that the cues enhance take-over performance with a directional information on driving. However, studies on the effect of take-over cues on the driver's brain activities are rigorously investigated yet. Therefore, this study we evaluates the driver's brain activity according to the take-over cue. A total of 25 participants evaluated the take-over performance using a driving simulator. Brain activity was evaluated by functional near-infrared spectroscopy, which measures brain activity through changes in oxidized hemoglobin concentration in the blood. It evaluates the activation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the brain region. As a result, it was confirmed that the driver's PFC was activated in the presence of the cue so that the driver could stably control the vehicle. Since this study results confirmed that the effect of the cue on the driver's brain activity, and it is expected to contribute to the study of take-over performance on biomakers in conditional autonomous driving in future.