Presentation
Human Factors Concerns for a Mixed Equipage Society
DescriptionAs technology advances enable a future with widely varying levels of automation both on our roads and in our airspace, it is important to constantly consider the human factors issues, risks, and principles that should guide their development. Level 3 vehicles are being introduced this year in the United States, with many Level 2 vehicles already on the roads, and pilot programs in place for Level 4 vehicles in major cities. Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UASs) of varied sizes, as well as piloted vehicles with varying levels of automation are already interacting with traditionally piloted vehicles in our increasingly crowded National Airspace System (NAS). While these vehicles all come with their own human factors concerns, it is important to also ensure that they are considered from a holistic, systems perspective: how will humans need to adapt to appropriately interact in a system with broad variability in equipage? What risks are magnified? What support will be required to ensure safe incorporation of new technology? This panel aims to discuss relevant considerations from surface transportation and aviation domains as they relate to the cohabitation of manual, highly automated, and autonomously operated transportation systems.
The objective of this panel is to bring together experts from both aviation and surface transportation domains to discuss the human factors considerations related to the cohabitation of broadly varying levels of vehicle capabilities within the same system.
For surface transportation: what are some of the emerging issues associated with the broadening mix of vehicles? How are they being addressed or where are there gaps in the research that should be prioritized?
For aviation: where are the lessons learned for dealing with a mix of capabilities in a system that has more regulation and more training requirements? Where were there failures that either surface transportation could learn from, or where the innovation associated with the rapid technological leaps in surface transportation might be an area to look to? For new entrants, what is being done to alleviate issues before they come up? Where are there gaps?
Examples include:
• VRU interactions with vehicles with different automation levels, including driverless vehicles (e.g., how do they understand intentionality, safe-to-cross signals, etc)
• Emergency responders understanding of the capabilities of vehicles that they’re required to interact with (e.g., police officers enforcement of laws that are applied differently based on vehicle capabilities or how vehicles react to the presence of an emergency vehicle)
• Individual differences in ability to understand and interact with mixed fleets (e.g., are there age-related concerns related to navigating different levels of vehicle capabilities or transportation systems where the capabilities of the vehicle you’re interacting with may be unknown)
The objective of this panel is to bring together experts from both aviation and surface transportation domains to discuss the human factors considerations related to the cohabitation of broadly varying levels of vehicle capabilities within the same system.
For surface transportation: what are some of the emerging issues associated with the broadening mix of vehicles? How are they being addressed or where are there gaps in the research that should be prioritized?
For aviation: where are the lessons learned for dealing with a mix of capabilities in a system that has more regulation and more training requirements? Where were there failures that either surface transportation could learn from, or where the innovation associated with the rapid technological leaps in surface transportation might be an area to look to? For new entrants, what is being done to alleviate issues before they come up? Where are there gaps?
Examples include:
• VRU interactions with vehicles with different automation levels, including driverless vehicles (e.g., how do they understand intentionality, safe-to-cross signals, etc)
• Emergency responders understanding of the capabilities of vehicles that they’re required to interact with (e.g., police officers enforcement of laws that are applied differently based on vehicle capabilities or how vehicles react to the presence of an emergency vehicle)
• Individual differences in ability to understand and interact with mixed fleets (e.g., are there age-related concerns related to navigating different levels of vehicle capabilities or transportation systems where the capabilities of the vehicle you’re interacting with may be unknown)
Event Type
Discussion Panel
TimeThursday, September 12th1:30pm - 2:30pm MST
LocationFLW Salon G
Surface Transportation