Anticipation and the adaptive control of safety margins in driving

摘要

Driving is a task that requires the timely detection of critical events and relevant changes in traffic circumstances. Adaptation of speed and safety margins allows drivers to control the time available to react to potential hazards. One of the basic safety margins in driving is the time headway preserved with respect to cars ahead. To avoid rear-end collisions, drivers have to detect decelerations of lead cars. It can be assumed that fast or abrupt decelerations of the lead car are detected faster than slow or gradual decelerations.