Should older people be considered a homogeneous group when interacting with level 3 automated vehicles?

Li, Shuo, Blythe, Phil, Zhang, Yanghanzi, Edwards, Simon, Xing, Jin, Guo, Weihong, Ji, Yanjie, Goodman, Paul and Namdeo, Anil (2021) Should older people be considered a homogeneous group when interacting with level 3 automated vehicles? Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 78. pp. 446-465. ISSN 1369-8478

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2021.03.004

Abstract

Exploring the future mobility of older people is imperative for maintaining wellbeing and quality of life in an ageing society. The forthcoming level 3 automated vehicle may potentially benefit older people. In a level 3 automated vehicle, the driver can be completely disengaged from driving while, under some circumstances, being expected to take over the control occasionally. Existing research into older people and level 3 automated vehicles considers older people to be a homogeneous group, but it is not clear if different sub-groups of old people have different performance and perceptions when interacting with automated vehicles. To fill this research gap, a driving simulator investigation was conducted. We adopted a between-subjects experimental design with subgroup of old age as the independent variable. The differences in performance, behaviour, and perception towards level 3 automated vehicles between the younger old group (60–69 years old) and older old group (70 years old and over) was investigated. 15 subjects from the younger old group (mean age = 64.87 years, SD = 3.46 years) and 24 from the older old group (mean age = 75.13 years, SD = 3.35 years) participated in the study. The findings indicate that older people should not be regarded as a homogeneous group when interacting with automated vehicle. Compared to the younger old people, the older old people took over the control of the vehicle more slowly, and their takeover was less stable and more critical. However, both groups exhibited positive perceptions towards level 3 automation, and the of older old people’s perceptions were significantly more positive. This study demonstrated the importance of recognising older people as a heterogeneous group in terms of their performance, capabilities, needs and requirements when interacting with automated vehicles. This may have implications in the design of such systems and also understanding the market for autonomous mobility.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding information: We appreciate the time and effort of all the participants of this study. This research is part of a PhD research project at Newcastle University and we acknowledge the on-going support of the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the following funding wards: LC Transform (EP/N010612/1); Helping Older Drivers continue driving safer for longer (EP/K037579/1); the Centre for Energy Systems Integration (EP/P001173/1). The authors also acknowledge the advice and support of the National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) and the UK Department for Transport (DfT).
Uncontrolled Keywords: Level 3 automated vehicle, Highly automated vehicles, Vehicle automation, Older drivers, Older people, Human factors, Takeover control, User requirements, Driving simulator
Subjects: H900 Others in Engineering
J900 Others in Technology
L700 Human and Social Geography
Department: Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Geography and Environmental Sciences
Depositing User: Elena Carlaw
Date Deposited: 01 Apr 2021 13:47
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 15:36
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/45861

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