Driving Simulation for Evaluation of Driver Assistance Systems and Driving Management Systems

This paper describes how the development of advanced driver assistance systems and driving management systems requires careful and thorough evaluation of not only algorithms, but also user acceptance and adaptation. For that purpose, driving simulation provides an ideal environment by creating various driving situations that may not be possible in a test track for safety reasons and putting drivers in a simulation loop to evaluate objective performance and subjective feelings. This paper describes an on-going effort to expand our driving simulation capability to evaluate driver assistance and driving management systems. First, the paper presents the driving simulator and its major upgrade to provide better driving simulation environment. Second, the paper reports case studies on Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and a safe driving management system. The paper conducted a series of simulator experiments on ACC to determine effects of both positive and negative behavioral adaptation by the drivers. The paper found that ACC draws consistency in headway-time regardless of drivers’ driving styles. However, ACC also induces drivers’ blind reliance and distraction, resulting in reduced lane keeping ability, larger head and eye movement, and slower response to simulated ACC failure. The paper also reported on the progress being made on implementing the safe driving management system on the simulator and evaluating the effectiveness of the dangerous driving detection algorithm in a variety of driving situations.