Biblio

We performed a driving simulator study to investigate merging decisions with respect to an interaction partner in time-critical situations. The experimental paradigm was a two-alternative forced choice, where the subjects could choose to merge before human vehicles or highly automated vehicles (HAV). Under time pressure, subjects showed a significantly higher gap acceptance during merging situations when interacting with HAV. This confirmed our original hypothesis that when interacting with HAV, drivers would exploit the HAV's technological advantages and defensive programming in time-critical situations.
 

When designing driving simulator studies, sometimes high efforts have to be spent to make them successful. Some drivers may not behave as desired, leading to situations unforeseen by the developers. When looking at multi-driver studies, where multiple drivers need to interact with each other in one virtual environment, the probability of performing a successful study is even lower, as the behaviour of the human drivers cannot be fully controlled. While [Oel15b] already proposed guidelines for the creation of such scenarios, this paper describes how the probability of success can be monitored and even enhanced during scenario execution. Therefore, it describes an approach where the probability of success is modelled and where the scenario is dynamically adapted to provide higher rates of success.
 

In the future, mixed traffic Highly Automated Vehicles (HAV) will have to resolve interactions with human operated traffic. A particular problem for HAVs is the detection of human states influencing safety, critical decisions, and driving behavior of humans. We demonstrate the value proposition of neurophysiological sensors and driver models for optimizing performance of HAVs under safety constraints in mixed traffic applications.