This is a speculative exposition of human factors problems which may accompany semi-automation of highway vehicles. It emphasizes the problems of manual control takeover from an automatic system under both normal and emergency conditions. The paper hypothesizes a new way to consider driver alertness in terms of stability margins of control theory, proposes a three-time-scale model of driver decision-making, and suggests two simulation techniques especially applicable to studying driver alertness and manual control takeover.
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