Comparison of Steering Interventions in Time-critical Scenarios

Abstract

The present study focuses on steering interventions that “push” the driver's vehicle away from the obstacle suddenly entering the vehicle's trajectory from the side of the road (e.g. a cyclist or a car leaving a parking space). The main objective was to investigate the effectiveness of the different intervention strategies while considering safety-of-use and questions of controllability. For the study a dynamic driving simulator with a real-vehicle mockup was used. Participants drove through simulated urban traffic while occasionally experiencing suddenly appearing obstacles. Duration and signal characteristics (gradient and amplitude) of the steering wheel torques were manipulated. All used steering interventions reduced the collision rates compared to the baseline condition. Gradient and amplitude of the steering wheel torque had no significant impact on the effectiveness whereas higher amplitudes and a longer duration of the steering intervention increased overshoot rates. A detailed analysis of the driver behavior revealed damping by the drivers between 200-600 ms.