What the crash dummies don´t tell you: The interaction between driver and automation in emergency situations

Systems design is plagued by criticism for failing to adequately define the role of the human within the system as a whole. Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) systems automate elements of the driving task by warning the driver of a collision risk and, if necessary, applying the brakes to reduce collision impact. As with all automated technologies, questions remain over whether or not AEB fundamentally changes the driving task by affecting the ways in which the driver interacts with vehicle systems. In order to address these concerns, Operator Sequence Diagrams have been developed to provide an insight into the roles of the driver and vehicle sub-systems in an emergency situation using the distributed cognition approach.