Evaluation of Adaptive Cruise Control Interface Requirements on the National Advanced Driving Simulator

The goal of this study was to improve the understanding of the relationship between experience with adaptive cruise control (ACC) and driving performance. The three study objectives were: (1) Determine whether drivers who are experienced with ACC respond appropriately to the feedback provided by a familiar ACC system under crash-likely scenarios; (2) Determine if there are usage and error patterns that emerge across a sample of drivers who currently use ACC; (3) Identify countermeasures if drivers make safety-critical errors or engage in problematic usage patterns when driving with familiar ACC systems. Twenty-four participants completed the study protocol. There were two study scenarios and both had three driving environments: rural, interstate, and residential. As permitted within the constraints of the database, the order of events was balanced between the two scenarios to reduce order effects. The events were a mixture of critical and non-critical events. Overall, early adopters had few critical errors, and only one driver failed to respond to alerts from the ACC system when the limits of the system were exceeded in critical events. The most frequent errors made by drivers were during the curve events and were not safety critical. Only two participants understood that their personal vehicle’s ACC system did not detect stopped vehicles, indicating a critical gap in ACC knowledge. Drivers did not appear to become more complacent with experience, although their trust in the system did increase. Suggested countermeasures for future analysis include reducing the acceleration of the system, which some report as too aggressive, and relocating the system icon to a more visible location.

• Record URL:
  https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/812172-evaluadaptvcruisecontrlintrfcrequiremtnads.pdf
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Iowa, Iowa City

  National Advanced Driving Simulator, 2401 Oakdale Boulevard
  Iowa City, IA  United States  52242-5003

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Moeckli, Jane
  • Brown, Tim
  • Dow, Ben
  • Boyle, Linda Ng
  • Schwarz, Chris
  • 0000-0003-0291-7157
  • Xiong, Huimin
• Publication Date: 2015-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 199p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous intelligent cruise control; Driver errors; Driver vehicle interfaces; Evaluation
• Identifier Terms: National Advanced Driving Simulator
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01653367
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT HS 812 172, N10-008
• Contract Numbers: DTNH22-06-D-00043
• Files: HSL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Dec 11 2017 8:08PM