Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC) is planning to undertake five new research projects that will focus on how vehicle drivers use and respond to advanced vehicle technologies, including automated driver assistance systems.

The new initiative will be carried out in collaboration with US research institutions and will be part of CSRC Next, a five-year programme designed to support a safe transition to future mobility.

Institutions that will be a part of five research projects include George Mason University, Rockville Institute, University of Washington, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, and San Francisco State University.

George Mason University will be involved in the project titled ‘A Neuroergonomic Evaluation of Mental Model Development of Future Automated Driving Technologies’, while Rockville Institute will be engaged in the project called ‘A Naturalistic Driving Evaluation of Mental Model Development of Future Automated Driving Technologies.’

The University of Washington will focus on the project ‘Effectiveness of Short and Long-Term Education Methods to Enhance Risk Mitigation and Associated Safety-Related Driving Skills’, and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute will be concentrating on a project called ‘Guidelines for Development of Evidenced-Based Countermeasures for Risky Driving.’

“We believe we can help progress society’s acceptance of these new and promising technologies.”

San Francisco State University will be working on the fifth research project called ‘Effective Stimuli and Behaviour for Driving Safety in Automated Driving.’

Four out of five projects will be focusing on the societal acceptance and generate data-driven insights into the use of these technologies.

Data gathered during each project will be shared across the institutions in order to accelerate the research process, and results published to the public in order to support the advancement of auto safety industry-wide.

CSRC director Chuck Gulash said: “The development of advanced vehicle technologies may be progressing faster than the ability of some people to fully understand their capabilities, and it’s important to identify how drivers actually understand and use these emerging systems.

“By working with our partner institutions, and openly sharing our insights with the broader automotive, government, NGO, and technology communities, we believe we can help progress society’s acceptance of these new and promising technologies.”