  Research in aviation and driving has highlighted the importance of training
as an effective approach to reduce the costs associated with the supervisory
role of the human in automated systems. However, only a few studies have
investigated the effect of pre-trip familiarization tours on highly automated
driving. In the present study, a driving simulator experiment compared the
effectiveness of four familiarization groups, control, video, low fidelity
virtual reality (VR), and high fidelity VR on automation trust and driving
performance in several critical and non-critical transition tasks. The results
revealed the positive impact of familiarization tours on trust, takeover, and
handback performance at the first time of measurement. Takeover quality only
improved when practice was presented in high-fidelity VR. After three times of
exposure to transition requests, trust and transition performance of all groups
converged to those of the high fidelity VR group, demonstrating that: a)
experiencing automation failures during the training may reduce costs
associated with first failures in highly automated driving; b) the VR tour with
high level of interaction fidelity is superior to other types of
familiarization tour, and c) uneducated and less-educated drivers learn about
automation by experiencing it. Knowledge resulting from this research could
help develop cost-effective familiarization tours for highly automated vehicles
in dealerships and car rental centers.
