Anticipation in Car Following: Modelling Expectations for the Development of Driver Assistance Systems

The EU-project ISi-PADAS aims to integrate driver models into the development process of driver assistance systems. Driver modeling is used to predict whether the driver is likely to not react adequately to the driving situation and whether the PADAS should intervene. It is based on empirical investigations. An accident analysis showed that in many rear end accidents, driver's inadequate expectations about the lead car may be a major factor in causing the accident. A driving simulator study was conducted to examine this hypothesis. The behavior of a lead car was varied in order to create different expectations. Attention allocation and driver behavior was examined. The results are partially consistent with the hypotheses