Automatic intelligent cruise control

Abstract

This paper reports a study on the evaluation of automatic intelligent cruise control (AICC) from a psychological perspective. We anticipated that AICC would have an effect upon the psychology of driving - namely, make the driver feel like they have less control, reduce the level of trust in the vehicle, make drivers less situationally aware, but might reduce the workload and make driving might less stressful. Drivers were asked to drive in a driving simulator under manual and automatic intelligent cruise control conditions. Analysis of Variance techniques were used to determine the effects of workload (amount of traffic) and feedback (degree of information from the AICC system) on the psychological variables measured - locus of control, trust, workload, stress, mental models, and situational awareness (SA). The results showed that locus of control and trust were unaffected by AICC, whereas SA, workload, and stress were reduced by AICC. Ways of improving SA could include cues to help the driver predict vehicle trajectory and identify conflicts.