Research program

It is the ultimate objective of ADAPTATION to study the whole range of adaptation processes in response to ADAS including behavioural adaptation, risk compensation, and changes in information processing from a comprehensive perspective, in an integrated way.

Four main scientific objectives have been assigned to the training-through-research projects:

  • A better understanding of drivers’ adaptation processes following ADAS use on different levels (regulatory level, cognitive level, motivational level).
  • Distinguishing the short-, medium- and long-term effects of ADAS use on drivers’ behaviour.
  • Studying the impact of age as a driver characteristic on ADAS use and skill acquisition.
  • Assessing the effects of the system’s performance and the level of automation as important system characteristics on drivers’ adaptation.

More technologically oriented objectives underlie the definition of ADAPTATION research programme. The main expected outcomes are:

  • An empirical baseline for the design of ADAS.
  • A shared database from different studies that can be used for further testing.
  • An empirical evidence for safety and usability evaluation procedures of ADAS.
  • A set of recommendations and guidelines for the design and development of ADAS.
  • A set of recommendations to heighten public awareness for a safe use of ADAS.
  • A set of methodological recommendations for the study design of investigations on adaptation processes.

Partners will build up a joint methodological framework benefiting from the different disciplines present in ADAPTATION: neurophysiology, experimental psychology, psycho sociology, ergonomics and engineering. The scientific approach will include at once surveys and observations of ADAS use in everyday life and experimentations in laboratory with driving simulators in the case of systems not already available. The knowledge on the different components of adaptation processes acquired during the different PhD works will be integrated, confronted, interpreted and validated to develop a theoretical model of behavioural adaptation.