Driver-Vehicle Interaction: The Effects of Physical Exercise and Takeover Request Modality on Automated Vehicle Takeover Performance between Younger and Older Drivers

Semi-autonomous vehicles still require manual takeover intervention. For older drivers, age-related declines may make takeover transitions difficult, but the current literature on takeover and aging is mixed. Non-chronological age factors, such as engagement in physical exercise, which has been shown to mitigate perceptual and cognitive declines, may be contributing to these conflicting results. The goal of this pilot study was to examine whether age, physical exercise, and takeover request alert modality influence post-takeover performance. Sixteen younger and older adults were divided into exercise and non-exercise groups, and completed takeover tasks with seven different types of takeover requests. Overall, older adults in the physical exercise group had shorter decision-making times and lower maximum resulting jerk, compared to seniors in the non-exercise group. Takeover request type did not influence takeover performance. Findings may contribute to theories on aging and inform the development of next-generation automated vehicle systems.