The aim of this study was to explore how human factors were taken into account in the development of a new type of drilling equipment. This study is part of a larger project on the understanding of human factors in the design and implementation of automated drilling technology. The principal study was a longitudinal study lasting 4 years that involved 43 interviews, offshore and onshore observations, and 2 surveys. MethodThe analysis in this paper is based on 7 informants who were either part of the design team or the paramount project team developing new automated drilling technology for an offshore oil-and gas-producing installation in the same development project, in addition to project documents. The informants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, and grounded theory based on the coding process of Corbin and Strauss (1990) was used to analyse the data. 2 ResultsThe core category was found to be insufficient human factor analyses performed in the development phase due to the two main categories, namely 1) insufficient information coordination and 2) narrow focus in different phases of the project. This was found to contribute to increased costs, low user friendliness, and end users' insufficient knowledge of safe usage and potential risks. ConclusionOur conclusion was that homogenous top competence involving technical aspects contributed to developers' lack of understanding of the need for sufficient analyses of end user requirements and of the tasks that would be affected by the new technology. Hence, we argue that technological development could benefit from including human factors experts from the project's outset to bridge the gap between the lack of relevant information and sufficient information on which to base development decisions. In addition, we contend that performing human factors analyses throughout the development of a project would be beneficial due to the potential of hindering cultural aspects such as a non-questioning culture, which is viewed as a hazard in high-risk organizations.Keywords: human factors, human reliability, automated technology, safety, petroleum industry, technology development 3 IntroductionThe offshore oil and gas industry is considered a high-risk industry where minor incidents can lead to major accidents; thus, safety is a main priority (Årstad et al., 2010).Consequences of non-successful development and implementation of new technology have the potential of resulting in unwanted incidents and, in worst-case scenarios, major accidents.Because studies from the nuclear industry show that between 20 and 50% of incidents involve design mistakes (Taylor, 2007), it is important to involve strategies that ensure safety in technological development projects. Traditionally, the focus on safety in the development of new technology has been on technical aspects. Although lately there has been a growing focus on the human end users of the technology (ISO 11064, 2000;NORSOK, 2004 Saetren and Laumann (2015a) conducted a study where they found that too much trus...

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Norway is currently ranked as one of the top nations in regard to road safety. However, continued efforts are applied as we stretch towards a goal of zero deaths and serious injuries in road traffic accidents. In this paper we explore if Norwegian driver education could benefit from simulator training. Possible advantages are cost effectiveness, environmentally friendly training, repeatability, accessibility to different scenarios (accident scenarios and dangerous situations, darkness and snow outside of winter, difficult weather conditions and extreme road traffic density), the possibility to make errors in a safe environment, and interaction with new technology such as advanced driver assistant systems. However, there are challenges such as how to increase the number of simulators in Norway, and legal obstacles as current legislations require all mandatory parts of the Norwegian driver education to be conducted on the road. Our overall impression is that the driver education in Norway could have advantages in applying a more systematic approach to simulator training.

On average, more than two people are killed or severely injured every day in Norway in road traffic. Hence, elements that benefit a decrease in this number will be welcomed, such as "Advanced Driver-Assist System" (ADAS) technology. However, increasing technology in cars might require new driving skills compared to those taught today and the transition to more and new technology could potentially increase the accident rate. In the safety industry, it is well known that training for new and more automated technology is important. This raises a question: How does the transition to new, more complex and more automated technology affect driver training and the education of driver instructors? At the present time, there are no clear answers to this question. However, it seems that there is a need for a discussion and potentially a redefinition on which driver skills should be required, and how to implement these skills. This is what we attempt to discuss in this paper.

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