Lessons Lost: What We Learned About Automation in Aviation Can Be Applied to Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

As research related to automation in aviation evolved from human factors to cognitive engineering and from automation to autonomy, a whole generation of research has been forgotten. With one third of the engineering work force retired or retiring, in the next 10 years (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018) the lessons of the past are being lost. To preserve some of the lessons learned, I wrote seven articles that are currently on The MITRE Corporation web site. This series summarizes both the research and the accident analyses conducted from 1970 through 2000 related to automation in commercial aviation.

Keywords

automation industrial ergonomics highway and vehicle design surface transportation product safety product design driver behavior design strategies test and evaluation methods

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