United States Department of Transportation
i
Exploring the Effects of Vehicle Automation and Cooperative Messaging on Mixed Fleet Eco-Drive Interactions
-
2024-12-01
-
[PDF-2.62 MB]
Details:
-
Creators:
-
Corporate Creators:
-
Corporate Contributors:
-
Subject/TRT Terms:
-
Publication/ Report Number:
-
DOI:
-
Resource Type:
-
Right Statement:
-
Geographical Coverage:
-
Contracting Officer:
-
Corporate Publisher:
-
Abstract:Driver assistance systems that facilitate economical driving (eco-driving) aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve vehicle efficiency. These systems reduce idling time at intersections and smooth acceleration and deceleration patterns. Eco-driving has the potential to improve driving comfort by smoothing speed profiles. This study explores the behavior of drivers who followed a lead vehicle that demonstrated eco-driving strategies, such as reducing speed ahead of a signal change to minimize idling time at the intersection. The participants received cooperative driving automation (CDA) messages about the upcoming signal change or that shared the intent of the lead vehicle. The participants drove under one of four conditions: without adaptive cruise control (ACC) or CDA enabled, with ACC enabled, with CDA messages enabled, or with CDA messages and ACC both enabled. The four levels of CDA messages were no message, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) lead vehicle intent sharing, vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) signal status message, and both messages. The field research vehicle recorded speed, braking variability, and following distance from each participant’s vehicle. After each trial, the researchers asked the participants about their trust in the vehicle they had been following. The team analyzed speed and acceleration profiles to assess differences in fluctuation in different signal phasing conditions. Statistical analyses aimed to understand the impact of ACC status and CDA messages on driver behavior. The team used mid- and postexperiment questionnaires to evaluate the drivers’ experiences and acceptance of lead vehicle, CDA messaging, and vehicle automation technology. The study’s findings suggest that drivers in ACC-enabled vehicles could follow the eco-driving vehicle with more ease than drivers in conventional vehicles. The impact of CDA messages was not unanimous for all the scenarios. V2V messages helped ACC-enabled vehicle drivers, and V2I messages helped conventional vehicle drivers to some degree. The study found the participants had high trust ratings on lead vehicles and CDA messages. Overwhelming evidence of acceptance of vehicle automation was not observed, although the study showed slightly higher perceptions of safety gain than loss.
-
Format:
-
Funding:
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
