U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
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Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
| SUMMARY REPORT |
| This summary report is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information |
 |
| Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-17-025 Date: December 2017 |
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-17-025 Date: December 2017 |
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This report presents results of human factors research to examine the effects of cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) on driver performance in a variety of situations. CACC has been envisioned as an automated vehicle application that complements the capabilities of the vehicle operator without degrading the vehicle operator’s alertness and attention.
Four experiments are summarized that were conducted in a driving simulator. Three of these experiments focused on the effects of CACC when drivers in a string of CACC-equipped vehicles had to respond to other drivers merging into the string or to rapid deceleration of the lead vehicle in the string. The remaining experiment focused on the human factors issues that arose when a driver merged into an existing string of CACC vehicles.
This report informs the discussion of how automated vehicle applications will be embraced by everyday drivers and affect their behavior. It should be useful to engineers, researchers, and transportation professionals who are evaluating and implementing connected vehicle technologies that include longitudinal vehicle control.
Jonathan Porter, Ph.D.
Acting Director, Office of Safety
Research and Development
Notice
This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of the information contained in this document.
The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’ names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document.
Quality Assurance Statement
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides high-quality information to serve Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public understanding. Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of its information. FHWA periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement.
Technical Report Documentation Page
| 1. Report No.
FHWA-HRT-17-025 |
2. Government Accession No. | 3 Recipient's Catalog No. | ||
| 4. Title and Subtitle
Summary Report: Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control Human Factors Study |
5. Report Date December 2017 |
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| 6. Performing Organization Code | ||||
| 7. Author(s)
Vaughan W. Inman, Stacy A. Balk, Steven Jackson, and Brian H. Philips |
8. Performing Organization Report No.
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9. Performing Organization Name and Address Leidos, Inc. |
10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) |
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| 11. Contract or Grant No.
DTFH61-13-D-00024 |
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| 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address
Office of Safety |
13. Type of Report and Period Covered
Final Report; 10/1/2013–06/30/2016 |
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14. Sponsoring Agency Code HRTM-30 |
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| 15. Supplementary Notes
The Contraction Officer's Representative was David Yang, and the Government's Task Manager was Brian Philips. |
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| 16. Abstract
This summary report provides a high-level overview of four experiments that investigated human factors issues surrounding cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC). CACC combines three driver assist systems: (1) conventional cruise control, which automatically maintains the speed a driver has set, (2) adaptive cruise control, which uses radar or light detection and ranging sensors to automatically maintain a gap the driver has selected between the driver’s vehicle and a slower-moving vehicle ahead, and (3) dedicated short-range communications to transmit and receive data with surrounding vehicles so that the cruise control system can more quickly respond to changes in speed and location of other CACC vehicles, even vehicles that the driver cannot see.
This report describes a series of experiments that examined how use of a CACC affected drivers’ workload, propensity to distraction, level of physiological arousal, ability to avoid a crash, merging abilities, and trust in the system.
The first experiment compared driving with CACC in a string of four or five vehicles with manual control of the following distance in the same strings. The second experiment explored driver performance when merging into a string of CACC vehicles. The third experiment took a closer look at the source of a substantial crash reduction benefit obtained with CACC in the first experiment. The fourth experiment examined the effect of a driver’s preferred following distance on performance and workload when using short and long CACC gap settings. |
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| 17. Key Words
Cooperative adaptive cruise control, CACC, human factors, driving simulation, attention, distraction, merging, emergency response, alarms. |
18. Distribution Statement
No restrictions. This document is available through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161. |
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19. Security Classification Unclassified |
20. Security Classification Unclassified |
21. No. of Pages 61 |
22. Price
N/A |
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| Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) | Reproduction of completed page authorized |
SI* (Modern Metric) Conversion Factors
ACC |
adaptive cruise control |
CACC |
cooperative adaptive cruise control |
DSRC |
dedicated short-range communications |
FHWA |
Federal Highway Administration |
GEE |
generalized estimating equation |
GSR |
galvanic skin response |
NASA-TLX |
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index |
TTC |
time to collision |
