Human centered automation: oxymoron or common sense?

Though human centered automation is currently a fashionable idea in many context, its precise meaning is not well or commonly understood. The human is seen as an essential element in the system for monitoring the automation, to act as a supervisory controller over the subordinate but presumably less intelligent subsystems, and to be able to step in when the automation fails. But it has become evident that human, when put in the role of monitor, supervisor, and automation backup in case of failure, may not perform well.