After you: Merging at Highway On-Ramps

Abstract

Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication offer new possibilities for cooperatively interactive driving. It enables vehicles to carry out maneuvers cooperatively with other vehicles. However, these maneuvers have to be predictable and understandable to a human driver to prevent the driver from intervening with the automation. In a video-based study, we investigated potential influencing factors on the willingness to behave cooperatively in an on-ramp situation on a highway: The situation’s criticality for the lane-changing vehicle, the way the intention to change the lane was indicated and the scope of action. More-over, we asked participants to rate their perceived criticality. Participants preferred to change lanes to the left or decelerate to let the other vehicle merge in front of them. If a lane change was not possible, participants rated the situation as more critical. These results are useful for the developing process of human-machine interfaces for cooperatively interacting vehicles.