Situation Awareness Management for Driver Take Over from Level 4

The market launch of series-produced vehicles with the first functions of conditional automation according to SAE Level 3 by automobile manufacturers is imminent. For years, research has been conducted worldwide into the requirements placed on drivers when they are called upon by the vehicle to take over the driving task from the vehicle again (Take Over Request, TOR). In the next higher Level of automation, Level 4, the human driver will no longer be permanently required as a fallback Level, which represents a major step toward the fully autonomous mobility of the day after tomorrow. Accordingly, the vehicle's occupants will be able to devote themselves to other activities (non-driving-related activities, NDRA) during the automated journey, leaving the driver’s seat unoccupied. Over a longer introductory phase, the use of Level 4 functions will remain restricted to routes of manageable complexity, i.e. highways and their feeder routes. If a TOR to Level 2 is made in Level 4, for example to be able to drive manually on a detour route beyond the freeway, a significantly more extensive transfer procedure will be required than in Level 3. At the end of a more elaborate takeover process, there is the question of the required situational awareness of the human driver. A novel software function to increase and verify this situation awareness is presented in this paper.