A study was conducted earlier this year at the University of Nottingham into “conditional automation” cars capable of self-driving on motorways and in traffic jams, expected to be available on the UK market in the next few years.
The research involved 49 drivers of different ages and genders driving a simulator for half an hour every day for five days.
Participants would begin by driving manually but when the simulation reached a stretch of dual carriageway they were given the chance to hand over control to the car itself.
After around 20 minutes, they were told they needed to manually drive the car again and would get a 60-second prepare to drive notification.
Researchers Professor Gary Burnett, Dr David Large and Dr Davide Salanitri found the driving after the participants took back control of the car was poor, swerving across lanes and varying their speed during the 10 seconds following the handover.
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