SYSTEM AND METHOD EXTENDING DRIVER ENGAGEMENT TO REMOTE DEVICE FOR AUTONOMOUS HAND-OFF AND EYES-OFF FEATURES

A system to enhance performance and usability of a state machine implementation by an electronic control unit within a vehicle having autonomous operating capabilities is provided. The state machine provides an escalation state used to exit from status quo. The vehicle driver has a mobile device within the vehicle. The system includes an enhanced state machine configured to use the mobile device. The mobile device non-intrusively captures multimodal driver engageability data and generates an enhanced engageability score. The enhanced engageability score augmenting a decision by the state machine on whether the escalation stat transition shall occur. The enhanced state machine additionally provides a signal to alert the driver through the mobile device that the escalation state is imminent.