UK engineers trial autonomous driving “handover” technology

Better understanding of how drivers interact with autonomous vehicles will be critical to the development of the technology according to a team of UK researchers.

The first trials of the Venturer autonomous vehicle project – an effort to establish the South West as a hot bed of driverless car technology - have focused on a critical aspect in the field of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology: the handover.

This process, the point at which control of the car switches from human driver to autonomous mode, is one of the least studied aspects of this developing technology.

However, according to the Venturer team the interaction between the human driver and the car is a vital component in taking the new technology forward to a stage where it can be safely and successfully deployed on public roads.

The first trials tested drivers in a static simulator and in the Venturer driverless car, on private roads at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).