Impact of high-contact sport on driving behavior in automated vehicles: A study involving ice hockey athletes.

Abstract

Objectives: Conditionally Automated Vehicles (CAVs) can operate autonomously under specific conditions, requiring the human driver to be cognitively prepared to intervene when the system reaches its operational limits. This reliance on human intervention raises concerns about the drivers' cognitive readiness during takeover. Individuals, including athletes in high-contact sports, may frequently experience concussions, which may lead to cognitive impairments affecting their driving. This study examined the differences in cognitive and driving performance between groups with and without a history of concussion.

Methods: Seventeen high-contact sports athletes and seventeen control participants completed takeover tasks in CAV simulator. The takeover tasks required the driver to regain vehicle control when the ADS is particularly unlikely to operate as intended, necessitating cognitive responses within limited timeframe. Mental workload, situational awareness (SA), takeover success, takeover time, manual driving success, and manual driving duration were measured.

Results: Results indicated that high-contact sports athletes exhibited longer response time to future oriented SA queries and shorter manual driving duration than control group.

Conclusion: These findings may reflect group differences potentially related to concussion history. This study highlights the need for further research into CAV design improvement and clinical guidelines for safe return-to-driving timelines for cognitively impaired drivers.