Hi everybody. Welcome to Shift, a podcast about mobility. I'm Pete Bigelow, your host.

An influx in new advanced driver assistance technology has reached public roads in recent years,

and the pace of innovation and new product is accelerating.

The latest announcement comes from Mercedes-Benz, which says it's going to be the first automaker

to deploy a level 3 automated driving system on US roads after self-certifying that system in Nevada.

What does that mean? Not too many people know.

But big picture, whether we're talking about a level two driver assistance system or level three automation,

there's increased scrutiny of how drivers behave when they're using these systems, whether they're causing inattention, whether they enhance safety,

and how humans and machines should best collaborate.

Brian Reamer has expertise in perspective and data

that informs some early answers to those questions.

He's a research scientist in the MIT Age Lab and at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics.

While there's federal efforts underway to understand how human drivers utilize these driver assistance features. Brian and his team have been collecting

that sort of data for nearly eight years. Brian is my guest on the podcast today. Without any further

preamble, let's get right to it. I'm pleased to bring you this conversation with MIT research scientist Brian Reamer.

Brian, welcome the podcast. It's great to have you here today.

Fantastic to be here, Pete.

You know, you and I have talked fairly often over the years and in preparation for our conversation

today I went back and looked at some of the stories I've written about your work, your perspective, the industry,

and there's one that stands out because it's timely.

Back on July 21st, 2019, I wrote a story with the headline,

Why Level 3 Automated Driving Technology

...