Assisting drivers’ merging onto the motorway: Evaluation of a new advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) using multi-driver simulation

摘要

The paper analyses the potential of a new ADAS called merging assistant. By using the method of a multi-driver simulation the effects of a merging assistant on drivers’ interactions and emotional response are measured. In order to answer this research objective, the subjects are located in different vehicles and evaluate merging situations from two different perspectives: driving on the merging lane vs. driving on the through lane of a motorway. The results show that a measure based on time-to-collision (called TTC-difference) is a suitable parameter that guides drivers’ evaluation of merging situations. It is shown that subjects who are already on the motorway are less likely to evaluate the gap in front of them as appropriate compared to subjects who want to merge from the slip road onto the motorway. The subjects’ perspective influences the gap evaluation, with own intentions leading to egoistic evaluations. A merging assistant reduces the anger felt by the driver on the merging lane and leads to later merging. As headways show that safety is not negatively influenced by the merging assistant, such an ADAS based on car-to-car communication technology has the potential to reduce conflicts as well as drivers’ workload during merging interactions.