Human Factors & Safety Group hosts L3Pilot project workshop

On 16 & 17 January 2018, Professor Natasha Merat, Dr Tyron Louw, and Dr Daryl Hibberd, of the Human Factors & Safety group,  organised and hosted the first joint sub-project workshop for the EU-funded L3Pilot project, attended by 60 experts from industry and academia. The project focuses on the large-scale piloting of SAE Level 3 functions, with additional assessment of some Level 4 functions. The functionality of the systems used will be exposed to variable conditions with 1,000 test drivers and 100 vehicles in 11 European countries. The tested functions cover a wide range from parking to overtaking, and urban intersection driving. With its extensive coverage of driving situations, L3Pilot is the first project worldwide demonstrating and testing a comprehensive setup of automated driving functions.

After a welcome and introduction by Aria Etemad, L3Pilot project co-ordinator (VW), and Professor Natasha Merat, ITS Leeds PI, participants presented updates from the various sub-projects, followed by the collaborative workshop. During the workshop, participants assessed the feasibility and priority of a wide range of research questions, including technical aspects, user acceptance, driving and travel behaviour, and impact on traffic and society, that will be addressed within the project. On the one hand, this required understanding what the research questions were and how they were collected, and on the other hand, understanding what data can be collected from the pilots. The workshop discussions generated new research questions and provided clarity on those already collected. For more information on the L3Pilot project, please visit the project website: http://l3pilot.eu/