Please take over! An analysis and strategy for a driver take over request during autonomous driving

During autonomous driving, in particular conditional or highly automated driving, a critical part of the system is the driver take over request. Little focus has been given to this important aspect in an automated driving journey. A driver take over request, or TOR, can happen for various reasons and under varying circumstances. Once a TOR occurs, as defined in conditional or highly automated driving, the driver has a finite amount of time in order to take over manual control of the vehicle before the automated driving system deactivates. This paper presents a detailed analysis of why a TOR can occur, how the automated driving system should react during the TOR phase and what should happen at the end of a TOR in order to realize a safe and comfortable TOR for the driver. Various driving strategies during a TOR are presented and evaluated for a single-lane highway scenario.