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In the age of information, in-vehicle multitasking is inevitable. The popularity of the automobile, in combination with the present information age, create a growing demand to do more in-vehicle than simply focus on the road. Unconstrained Design, a philosophy which supports rather than constrains multitasking, is proposed as a path toward enhancing performance in-vehicle. Situation Awareness (SA), a theory allowing designers to understand how operators interact in dynamic, complex environments, is used to frame this experimental investigation. Two SA-grounded human-machine interface concepts are proposed, designed to support drivers to multitask in-vehicle when frequent task switching is required. The first focuses upon supporting preparation for a Non-Driving Related Activity (NDRA), and the second upon supporting the Driving Related Activity (DRA) when an NDRA is active. While multitasking, Contextual Cueing, using a Head-up Display, produced significant reductions in NDRA response time, while an auditory lane keeping aid increased the amount of time a driver spent in the central region of a lane. The combined evidence suggests that using SA and Unconstrained Design to create of IVIS that support drivers' ability to multitask in-vehicle can lead to task performance improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specific vehicle automation use-cases such as traffic jams will be the first level 3 functions on the market. When the 'traffic jam pilot' nears its limits in non-critical situations, control needs to be handed back to the driver, enabling appropriate situation awareness (SA) and vehicle handling. According to previous research, operational vehicle stabilisation can be achieved within a transfer-of-control (TOC) of a few seconds in simple traffic environments, but tactical level decisions benefit from longer hand-over times. To date, the effects of non-critical TOCs have not been studied using set time frames. To investigate the impact of short (unplanned, 5 seconds) and long (planned, 50 seconds) TOC requests, while playing/not playing an engaging tablet game, a simulator experiment was conducted with 16 participants. Comparisons of the 60-second-period of manual driving following automation suggest better longitudinal vehicle control as well as more appropriate SA following the long TOC request, and automation periods without the game. However, following no engaging game, lateral performance was worse during the first 10 seconds of manual driving. Control-level visual search patterns did not change with TOC time or the game. Future research needs to consider support for drivers' SA maintenance and readiness to drive following high automation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]