UK universities are being encouraged to apply for a £50k research grant to support doctoral research to explore driver training for the increasing automation of vehicles.
In a press release issued today (29 Mar), IAM RoadSmart says it is looking to fund a PhD student project (£50K) for ‘research into the training implications for drivers of the driver vehicle interface in the context of the increasing automation of vehicles’.
The road safety charity is seeking proposals focusing on ‘the important issue of driver training for the increasing automation of vehicles and progressing to fully automated vehicles’.
The successful applicant will be announced at a one day conference, titled ‘Driver Ahead? Managing the implications for drivers of the transition to ever more intelligent cars’, which will be held at the RAC Club in London on 4 October.
Proposals should be a maximum of 1,500 words and applications should also include information on any planned matched funding through organisations such as the FIA, Road Safety Trust, Rees Jeffrey’s or the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Neil Greig, IAM research director, said: “The operation of increasingly automated road vehicles is likely to require different skills and place different demands on drivers than the operation of manual vehicles.
“We suspect that the skills required for manual control of vehicles do not necessarily prepare people for supervision of vehicles with multiple control systems, and particularly for taking back control from, fully automated vehicles.
“A programme of doctoral research should aim to compare and contrast the different training requirements as well as developing and validating a proposed driver-coaching scheme.”
Applications should be sent to Neil Greig via email, with the closing date on 30 August.
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