The present study was designed to examine the influence of explanation-based knowledge regarding system functions and the driver’s role in conditionally automated driving (Level 3, as defined in SAE J3016). In particular, we studied how safely and successfully drivers assume control of the vehicle when encountering situations that exceed the automation parameters. This examination was conducted through a test-track experiment. Thirty-two younger drivers (mean age = 37.3 years) and 24 older drivers (mean age = 71.1 years) participated in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Adopting a between-participants design, in each experiment the participants were divided into two age- and sex-matched groups that were given differing levels of explanation-based knowledge concerning the system limitations of automated driving. The only information given to the less-informed groups was that, during automated driving, drivers may be required to occasionally assume control of the vehicle. The well-informed groups were given the same information, as well as details regarding the auditory-visual alerts produced by the human–machine interface (HMI) during requests to intervene (RtIs), and examples of situations where RtIs would be issued. Ten and nine RtI events were staged for each participant in Experiment 1 and 2, respectively; the participants performed a non-driving-related task while the automated driving system was functioning. For both experiments it was found that, for all RtI events, more participants in the well-informed groups than the less-informed groups successfully assumed control of the vehicle. These results suggest that, in addition to providing information regarding the possible occurrence of RtIs, explanations of HMI and RtI-related situations are effective for helping both younger and older drivers safely and successfully negotiate such events.

本研究旨在检查基于解释的知识对系统功能和驾驶员在有条件自动驾驶中的作用的影响（SAE J3016中定义为3级）。特别是，我们研究了驾驶员在遇到超过自动化参数的情况时如何安全，成功地承担对车辆的控制。该检查是通过测试跟踪实验进行的。实验1和实验2分别为32名年轻驾驶员（平均年龄= 37.3岁）和24名老年驾驶员（平均年龄= 71.1岁）。采用参与者之间的设计，在每个实验中，参与者分为年龄和性别匹配的两个组，这些组被赋予关于自动驾驶系统局限性的基于解释的不同知识水平。提供给消息较少的人群的唯一信息是，在自动驾驶过程中，可能会要求驾驶员偶尔控制车辆。消息灵通的小组将获得相同的信息，以及有关人机界面（HMI）在干预请求（RtI）期间产生的听觉视觉警报的详细信息，以及将发布RtI的情况示例。在实验1和实验2中，每个参与者分别进行了10次和9次RtI事件。参与者在自动驾驶系统运行时执行了与驾驶无关的任务。对于这两个实验，发现对于所有RtI事件，消息灵通的组中的参与者要比消息灵通的组中成功参与控制的车辆多。这些结果表明，