Human–machine cooperation in smart cars. An empirical investigation of the loss-of-control thesis

• We investigate the loss-of-control thesis empirically by means of a survey of car drivers.
• The distribution of roles between the driver and driver assistant systems will change significantly.
• There is a positive correlation between the number of maneuver systems and the perception of control.
• We found a significantly positive correlation between general attitudes and perception of control.

In socio-technical systems such as modern planes or cars, assistance systems are used to increase performance and to maintain safety. This raises the questions, how they cooperate with human drivers and whether human operators face a loss of control. The article examines the loss-of-control argument empirically by means of a survey of a sample of car drivers with a number of driver assistance systems. It takes personal experiences with these systems into account, as reported by interviewees, and also figures out main factors that influence the drivers’ perceptions. We want to assess if the cooperation of driver assistance systems in modern cars raises the complexity and non-controllability of the whole system to a degree that is evaluated negatively by respondents in terms of loss-of-control. Additionally, our study asks how the interviewees perceive the current role distribution in modern cars and which future role distribution between humans and autonomous technology they expect.Our analysis will show that our respondents mostly feel comfortable with driver assistance systems, and satisfaction with automated driving does not decrease, but rather increase if more driver assistance systems of the maneuver type are implemented. At the same time, the number of automation malfunctions, reported by our interviewees, proved to be much smaller than we expected. In contrast to the assertion of a loss-of-control in highly automated systems, our data will show, that this hypothesis cannot be confirmed, at least not at the level of self-reported personal experiences and subjective perceptions of non-professional users such as car drivers.