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Response to Emergency Vehicles When Driving in a Mixed Vehicle Fleet
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2024-02-01
[PDF-1.11 MB]
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Edition:Final Report
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Abstract:This study explored the impact of connected vehicle alert messages on drivers’ responses to emergency vehicles. The participants drove a simulated vehicle either with or without SAE Level 2 automation (SAE International 2021). During the drive, an emergency vehicle approached the participant from behind. The participants’ vehicle connectivity was manipulated so that half the participants received an in-vehicle alert that an emergency vehicle was approaching. Connected-automated vehicle (CAV) market penetration (MP) was also manipulated to create an environment where none, some, or all the surrounding traffic responded to a connected vehicle (CV) with a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) emergency vehicle alert. Vehicle kinematics and eye tracking were used to assess the impact of vehicle automation, V2V communication, and CAV MP on drivers’ responses to emergency vehicles. The research team found CV alerts to be effective in getting the participants to yield to the approaching emergency vehicle. Drivers with CV alerts led to increased pullover rates and reduced speeds to pull over sooner than the participants without CV alerts. The participants driving Level 2 vehicles with CV alerts in low or full MP reduced speeds much sooner than the participants in no MP. These benefits were greatest in the full MP condition. However, in low or full MP, the participants in Level 2 vehicles who received CV alerts reduced speeds slightly later than the participants with manual vehicles who received CV alerts. Eye-tracking analyses found that the participants receiving CV alerts tended to spend more time gazing at the console and less time gazing at the roadway during the period when the emergency vehicle appeared to when the emergency vehicle passed. No crashes occurred at any time when the emergency vehicle appeared or when vehicles reentered the roadway. Overall, this study’s findings support a promising future of V2V communication for emergency vehicle awareness and response and the potential for CAVs to help responders arrive at traffic incidents more quickly.
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