Switching back to manual driving: How does it compare to simply driving away after parking?

Abstract

Is there a difference in behavior when a driver starts driving from a parked position compared to when they take over control from an autonomous driving car? In the former, the switch from static to driving might be bigger than the latter, where drivers are already in a moving vehicle. This difference might be paired with a decision to stop attending to any distracting task. In our study participants drove a straight highway in a simulator. They either took over driving after being driven autonomously, or after being parked for 2 minutes. Concurrently, we also played distracting videos next to the steering wheel. Participants looked more towards the road while the car was driving autonomously but surprisingly showed no difference in driving performance and gazes toward distraction after take- over compared to starting after parking. This result implies that despite a difference in road attention before the take- over, the control-switch is similar to simply starting to drive.