Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
under certain conditions [YOU 07b]. Eventually, the entire activity of the human
driver is likely to radically change: from a piloting task that is totally the
responsibility of the human driver (in perception, decision making and sensorimotor
control). Automobile driving is slowly changing into a task of automaton
supervision, potentially calling for completely different skills. The question of
human-machine cooperation is now different
3
, depending on whether the automatic
devices are engaged at the driver's initiative (as is the case for speed regulators, for
example) or those that are spontaneously set off when the situation requires it (for
example, collision avoidance devices). It is nevertheless true that the question of
copiloting - considered from the point of view of distribution of tasks and
responsibilities between the human and automaton - is now central to automobile
driving. From an activity that had been the exclusive prerogative of the human, we
are now heading towards co-managed driving under the joint authority of a complex
entity: the human-machine system.
These notions of system and human-machine cooperation were initially
productive in aeronautics [BOY 91], [HUT 95], [WIE 93], before establishing
themselves in the automobile context [BEL 03], [HOC 09]. Moving the notion of
machine “system” towards the “human-machine” structure as a whole is the result of
two realizations.
First, recognizing that in many situations automation without taking the human
operator into consideration is not a possibility. In automobile driving, full
automation is a utopia that ignores the extraordinary complexity of the driving
environment (this environment is much more simple in aeronautics). Apart from
situations where the abilities of the driver are very degraded and for which
simplification is required (an emergency stop, for example) or situations in the
hypothesis of future road sections that would be entirely dedicated to automated
driving, the notion of copiloting is unavoidable.
Second, the viewpoint of the human-machine system makes us consider that a
task common to the human and the machine exists for which a distribution of
3 As long as the automatic devices are in line with the activity of the human driver (as is the
case with breaking aids), the problems of human-machine cooperation are (all proportions
conserved) relatively simple to resolve: the driver decides on an action (to brake, for
example) and the automaton consequently acts on the vehicle in order to optimize the action
(and decision) of the human. In this context, human-machine coupling is quite natural (even if
it is not trivial on an ergonomic level): the human driver decides on an action and the
automaton assists him in its implementation. However, as soon as we come close to more
decisional levels (whether or not to engage an action on the brake), the integration of the
assistance technology in human activity becomes infinitely more complex. The conflict
between the driver and automatic devices becomes a more recurring issue, with the problems
of acceptability and responsibility in the event of an accident at the forefront of this.
