# Situational Awareness, Drivers Trust in Automated Driving Systems and Secondary Task Performance

**Authors:** Luke Petersen, Lionel Robert, X. Jessie Yang, Dawn M. Tilbury  
**arXiv:** [1903.05251](https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.05251)  
**Date:** 2019-03-12  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/arxiv-id/1903.05251v1/

## Key points

- Study investigates impact of situational awareness on trust in automated driving systems and secondary task performance
- Lack of trust hinders drivers from relying on automation or diverting attention to secondary tasks
- Authors propose enhancing situational awareness to increase trust in automation
- Situational awareness manipulated by providing different types of information to participants (control, low, high conditions)
- Data collected through surveys, eye-tracking technology, and heart rate monitoring
- Results show situational awareness promotes and moderates impact of trust in automated vehicles, leading to improved performance on secondary tasks
- Study emphasizes importance of situational awareness in fostering trust and enhancing performance with automated driving systems

## Summary

In their study titled "Situational Awareness, Drivers Trust in Automated Driving Systems and Secondary Task Performance," Luke Petersen, Lionel Robert, X. Jessie Yang, and Dawn M. Tilbury investigate the impact of situational awareness on trust in automated driving systems and secondary task performance. They highlight that driver assistance systems, also known as automated driving systems, allow drivers to engage in non-driving-related tasks. However, a lack of trust in these systems hinders drivers from fully relying on them or diverting their attention to secondary tasks. To address this issue, the authors propose that enhancing situational awareness can increase trust in automation. The study manipulates situational awareness by providing different types of information to participants. The control condition offers no information to the driver while the low condition provides a status update and the high condition not only provides a status update but also suggests a course of action. The researchers collect data through surveys, eye-tracking technology and heart rate monitoring to measure trust levels, trusting behavior and task performance. The results demonstrate that situational awareness plays a dual role by both promoting and moderating the impact of trust in automated vehicles which leads to improved performance on secondary tasks. This is evident in measures of self-reported trust and trusting behavior. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of situational awareness in fostering trust and enhancing performance when using automated driving systems by providing drivers with relevant information about their surroundings and suggesting appropriate actions so they can effectively support non-driving-related tasks while maintaining safety on the road.