The Relationship Between Older Drivers’ Cognitive Ability and Takeover Performance in Conditionally Automated Driving

In takeover process of conditionally automated driving, cognitive abilities, especially the executive function abilities, are found to play a significant role in driver’s performance. During the automated driving period, engaging in non-driving related tasks (NDRTs) also significantly affects takeover performance; moreover, different attributes of NDRT such as different task modalities were found to have different influences on takeover performance. This study aims to explore the relationship between the influence of different modalities of NDRT and the corresponding executive function abilities in older drivers during conditionally automated driving. We designed computerized cognitive experiments to evaluate older drivers’ executive function abilities in different modalities, a simulated driving experiment to evaluate older drivers’ takeover performance, and then investigated their relationship by a correlation study. Twenty-four participants were recruited in this experiment. The results showed that instant lateral stability of takeover performance tends to be better when engaged in auditory n-back task than visual SuRT, and longer continuous lateral control was most unstable without any NDRT. The results from correlation analysis indicated that older drivers with worse executive function abilities in either auditory or visual modality would perform less stable takeover behavior when engaged in NDRTs requiring the same cognitive modality. Overall, these findings verified the correlation between takeover performance and executive function abilities, and provide understanding of the correlation between modalities of NDRTs and corresponding cognitive abilities of older drivers.