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The study focussed on level 3 autonomous vehicles, where drivers are completely disengaged from driving, but may be called upon in some situations, for instance where there's poor network signal or a lack of road markings.
The study, asked 76 drivers—33 female and 43 male—to take over control in different weather conditions, with researchers measuring the timing of the takeovers and their quality.
The results, which were published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports this week, demonstrate that gender significantly affected performance.
Women showed a smaller percentage of hasty takeovers, a faster reaction time and a slightly more stable operation of the steering wheel.
“Our research strengthens the importance of tackling inequality in the context of future mobility. To create user-friendly automated vehicles, the manufacturers and designers need to adopt inclusive practices which fully consider the needs, requirements, performance, and preferences of end-users from different demographic groups," says Dr Shuo Liu of Newcastle University's School of Engineering, and the study's lead author.
“The next step, follow-up research is planned to explore gender differences in the needs and requirements associated with non-driving related tasks in Level 3 automated vehicles and investigate the effect of performing these tasks on end-users' behaviour and performance.”
Study Co-Author, Professor Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University’s School of Engineering, added: “This research is part of a wider programme of work which is helping us understand the issue and challenges of designing automated vehicles in a way that end users will be able to understand and use safely.”
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