Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control

completed

The Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) project included two phases. Phase 1 was an analytical project. The goal of this project was to develop and evaluate research methods to assess drivers acceptance and behavior when using CACC based upon specific scenarios derived a the mobility service concept. Phase 2 was focused on human factors research to examine the effects of 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.